Zoe Tong, a modern Chinese restaurant in South Austin, is getting serious about barbecue this spring. The company plans to open a new food truck, Si Baby-Q, at the restaurant at 1530 Barton Springs Road in the Zilker neighborhood sometime in April.
When co-owners Simone Tong and Matthew Hyland acquired the Barton Springs restaurant space, they took over the on-site smoker from one of the space's previous tenants, Uncle Billy's. I did. They had been using the equipment for some of Zoe's dishes, such as sticky barbecue ribs and duck, but they wanted to do more. Through general manager Travis Vergara, they met Jonathan Lagos, pitmaster at nearby restaurant Terry Black's Barbecue. He began helping the team smoke meat part-time. He talked about wanting to open his own food business, and Si Baby-Q was born.
Si Baby-Q's menu will be rooted in Texas barbecue, with Mexican and Southeast Asian accents. Lagos is Mexican-American and he is Singaporean. This means brisket made with salt and Indonesian long chili peppers. Smoked chicken and Hainanese chicken rice. Samjang Paste Eskitae. Queso cacio e pepe. Swap white bread slices for roti.
The truck's name comes from the Highland nickname for Tong, whose real name is Sea, hence Sea Baby. The bright pink trailer is parked on the restaurant's patio and is covered in cartoon drawings resembling Zoe Tong's exterior, including fantastical creatures carrying meat and vegetables playing around the Colorado River. , depicts Ton himself grilling.
Tong and Hyland will move to Austin in fall 2023 after moving there together from New York City-based restaurants, Chinese-American wine spot Silver Apricot and pizzeria Emily/Emmy Squared, respectively. We opened Zoe Tong.
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