Tour the Austin restaurants Netflix's 'Somebody Feed Phil' visited

Phil Rosenthal created “Everybody Loves Raymond,” but with each passing year, it seems more and more people know him as the affable and zany host of his own travel-food television series that follows him around the world as he eats with old friends, makes new friends and repeatedly breaks the fourth wall.

The concept that initially started out as “I’ll Have What Phil’s Having” on PBS now runs under the moniker, “Somebody Feed Phil.” The sixth season of the series dropped this week on Netflix and one of the hour-long episodes focuses solely on Austin, with visits to four of the top 10 restaurants in the just-released Austin360 Dining Guide. (Modest whisper: this restaurant writer has a small five-minute cameo in the episode.)

Rosenthal has a long history with the city and its creative community. “Exporting Raymond,” the documentary that first showcased Rosenthal’s potential as a dynamic on-screen presence as he attempted to translate his hit TV show for a Russian audience, won best feature at the Austin Film Festival.

I met Rosenthal around that time, moderating a conversation with him at AFF (the 29th annual fest begins next week, by the way) and eventually shared at least one dinner with him. I can report his off-screen persona is only slightly different than the one he presents on scene. Of course, editing makes it seem like he is always bulging his eyes and quipping one-liners, which isn’t quite the case. The writer and producer is a good listener, charming company and a thoughtful and concerned citizen engaged in various sociopolitical causes.

Rosenthal and I shared a two-hour dinner at Birdie’s, neatly cut down to a swift five minutes, where we enjoyed pasta dishes from chef Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel that reminded us of Rome, drank an assortment of wines from co-owner Arjav Ezekiel’s exciting and diverse list, and found out how Sicily influences the chef’s chocolate chip cookie.

Birdie’s was not the only place Rosenthal visited. Rosenthal bounced around town for a barbecue crawl with Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn, whom Rosenthal inaccurately calls an Austin resident at the top of the show (Vaughn lives in Dallas) for stops at LeRoy & Lewis (the burger and bacon rib were big hits), Distant Relatives (chef Damien Brockway’s side dishes made a big impression), and Interstellar BBQ (those scalloped potatoes, though). The final sequence from the show is a group meal out at Salt Lick (I was out of town that day).

Tacos got similar love from Rosenthal, as he hung out with the self-proclaimed chefs from the Austin Taco Mafia – Beto Robledo of Cuantos Tacos, Jerry Guerrero of quesabirria-slinging Palo Seco 512 (formerly La Tunita) and Discada’s Xose Velasco – at Sara Mardanbigi and chef Edgar Rico’s. All of those taqueros’ establishments landed spots on our list of the city’s best tacos.

The episode also includes the following stops: goat barbacoa, among other things, with chef Fermin Nuñez at Suerte; the Japanese-Texas mashup Kemuri Tatsu-Ya, where chef-owner Tatsu Aikawa gave Rosenthal a taste the excellent brisket-and-gouda-stuffed Hot Pocketz; a brief pop into Torchy’s Tacos in the show’s open; a slice from Home Slice Pizza; and some ice cream from Amy’s Ice Creams.

Stream the whole episode now on Netflix and read about some of the restaurants Rosenthal visited in our Austin360 Dining Guide, which also dropped this week: Birdie’s (#3) | Suerte (#4) | Nixta Taqueria (#5) | Interstellar BBQ (#9).

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: See the Austin restaurants Netflix's 'Somebody Feed Phil' visited