Olamaie’s Rowdy Southern Cousin Settles In on South Congress
Austin’s famously touristy avenue welcomes a new steakhouse with a celebratory spirit.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/ma...aurant-review/
A decade ago, Michael Fojtasek found himself on a succession of Greyhound buses traveling throughout the American South, a long and winding road that took the then 32-year-old chef through Athens, Charlotte, Nashville, and other key cities. He had become fascinated with Mississippi food writer John T. Edge’s book Southern Belly, a look at traditional foods, and was eager to eat at restaurants headed by a cadre of chefs—galvanized by Sean Brock, of Husk, in Charleston—who were breathing new life into the region’s beloved but sometimes stodgy dishes. That effort came to fruition four years later, when Fojtasek and his then–business partner, fellow chef Grae Nonas, opened a lovely Austin restaurant serving creatively updated Southern classics in a quiet neighborhood near downtown. The owners gave it a sweet, old-fashioned name, Olamaie (“Ola-may”), in honor of four generations of women in Fojtasek’s family. In a matter of months, it was amassing a rapturous local fan base. The next year it received a James Beard Award nomination for best new restaurant in the country.