Now open in former Z' Tejas space: Bulevar from ATX Cocina owners
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A couple of Austin’s most successful restaurant operators are introducing their first new concept in five years.
Having found success with upscale modern Mexican restaurant ATX Cocina, partners Larry Foles and Guy Villavaso have spun off the concept into the slightly more casual Mexican restaurant Bulevar, which recently opened in Northwest Austin.
The restaurant finds the duo back on familiar ground, literally, as Bulevar is located at 9400 Arboretum Blvd. in the building that once housed Z’ Tejas, the restaurant that helped drive the Southwestern cuisine craze of the late 1980s.
Bulevar’s menu will be familiar to diners at ATX Cocina; it features seafood, steaks, chicken and vegetables cooked over wood-fired grills and, of course, the Mexican staple of housemade masa created from Oaxacan corn sourced by the company Masiena.
Notable dishes include sopes made with steak and pork belly cooked on a trompo; duck mole; oxtail and pork pibil; and a half-dozen crudo dishes.
The longtime Austin restaurateurs have brought on Kevin Taylor, their operating partners at ATX Cocina, to serve as executive chef.
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“I was lucky enough to be raised in a family-operated Mexican kitchen, and I often take immersive trips throughout Mexico where I learn from and cook with locals. I’m always excited to showcase my appreciation and respect for Mexican cuisine to the city of Austin when I return. Each dish on the Bulevar menu is a combination of what my travels have taught me, my upbringing in a Mexican kitchen and my inspiration from the legends of Mexican cuisine,” Taylor said in a statement.
Foles and Villavaso’s vision has helped define Austin’s dining scene over the past three decades. In addition to their work at Z’Tejas, the operators elevated Austin’s seafood-steakhouse game with Eddie V’s in 2001, before selling the mini chain for a king’s ransom to Darden Restaurants in 2011; capitalized on fancy burger fascination with Hopdoddy; and have expanded their fried chicken chain Tumble 22 in recent years.
The original Z’Tejas will close next year on West Sixth Street to make way for a new development. Randy Cohen bought that business (founded by Foles and Villavaso in 1989) in early 2020.
Bulevar is open daily from 4 to 10 p.m. Brunch and lunch services are planned soon.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ATX Cocina owners open Bulevar in former Z'Tejas space
