Named after the genus of the honey bee, Chef Taylor Hall opened Apis Restaurant & Apiary in February 2015 to bring fine dining with extreme detail to the Hill Country.
Whether it is cooking with honey from the hives on their property, meat and wheat from local farms owned by friends, wild hogs they trapped in northern Texas, or eggs from the chickens on their patio, Hall said he and Chef Adam Brick try to get their hands on every part of the process.
“We are meticulous about every bit of the experience,” Hall said. “We are careful about how we source ingredients, our service, the artwork and the details in every aspect of every dish. We essentially make everything we use except for the salt.”
A Texas native, Hall was a chef at San Francisco restaurants Boulevard, Town Hall, and Salt House before moving back to Austin. He starting a catering business to introduce his cooking to the area while looking for a property to open a restaurant, he said. Brick, who previously worked at Restaurant Daniel and Momofuku in New York City, was brought into the fold to help create Apis from scratch.
“There are little details you can find everywhere at Apis,” Brick said. “Probably 80 percent of people that come in here don’t see it all, but it’s there for them to enjoy. People go out of their way to come here and if we create personal connections and great memories that’s fantastic.”
Bee products can be found in all phases of the menu, but not in ways people would expect, he said. Potatoes are cooked in bee’s wax, bee pollen is spread on toast, honeycombs come with cheese platters, and honey is used in most cocktails, desserts and vinegars, he said.
“It’s part of who we are without being blatantly there,” Hall said. “Honey doesn’t have to be sweet.”
Apis has a reservation-only prix fixe dining room menu that includes a small snack plate, sourdough bread, an appetizer, entrée and dessert for $40 per person on Wed.-Thu. and $64 per person Fri.-Sat. The charred Spanish octopus—served with a fermented chili, honey and vinegar sauce and a salad of snow peas and Meyer lemon—is a favorite appetizer, Brick said.
Apis also offers an outdoor patio with a happy hour menu, where patrons can drink and eat without a reservation and at a lower price point, he said.
Egg toast—grilled bruschetta and slowly cooked egg yolk topped with seasoned beef tartar—has been a menu staple since Apis opened.[/caption]
“As Apis grew, we saw that it became a special occasions restaurant, so we needed things that were going to compliment that,” Brick said. “We are cognizant of the fact that this is an expensive restaurant, so we took the Apis methodology and made it more accessible. We want to give people cheaper options to come in and experience the full package.”
The Apis bar steak ($19)—served with a black garlic sauce and potato pont neuf—is the restaurant’s play on meat and potatoes, he said. The burger ($14) is made with Apis’ dry-aged beef, smoked pork jowl and a special sauce.
Hall and Brick opened Pizzeria Sorellina Jan. 18 to cater more to families, Hall said.
“I have two crazy little girls that climb the walls anywhere they go,” Hall said. “We designed Sorellina and the outdoor area with the mindset of containing these kids so parents can feel comfortable letting them runaround.”
Hall said he plans to have live music on a small stage in the spring, a sandbox for kids and host a weekend farmer’s market that would feature local growers Apis uses for their cooking.
Taylor Hall (left) and Adam Brick grow vegetables and herbs on-site.[/caption]
Apis Restaurant & Apiary 23526 W. Hwy. 71, Spicewood 512-436-8918 www.apisrestaurant.com Hours: Wed.-Thu. 5-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5-10 p.m., closed Sun.-Tue. Bar and patio hours: Wed.-Fri. 5-7 p.m., closed Sat.-Tue. Pizzeria Sorellina hours: Wed.-Thu. 5-9 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5-10 p.m., Sun. noon-8 p.m., closed Mon.-Tue.
