Thanks for comments.

1). The wine portions are a 6 oz pour that goes to the bottom of the Cafe Eccell logo on the glass an an 11 oz pour that goes to the top of the Cafe Eccell logo. Obviously there are two different prices on the menu for those pours.
2). The front door wasn't locked, it had a faulty latch which has been repaired. I apologize for that.
3). Duly noted on the area behind the host stand. We have received a ton of compliments on the artwork there and the space, but I will definitely keep my ears open on that one.

Thanks!

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The tarts were good, and the addition of the peach is incredible.

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Whaaaaaaat???? Peach tart??? A new tart??? I must go!

Has the menu changed at all? If so, what does it take to get a glimpse at a current menu?

[This message has been edited by Max06 (edited 8/25/2014 3:45p).]

My personal favorites are the caramelized banana and fig tart and the cinnamon s'more creme brûlée!

[This message has been edited by Costa and Andreas (edited 8/25/2014 4:15p).]

We've added several items but only deleted one item. As far as viewing, I'm having issues uploading so until the new site is launched, we only have menus in the restaurant.

Will you guys operate the drive thru window for to go orders?

We ate there Friday night.

Good service.

The ambience is nice but lacks the quaintness of the old place --- I'm nostalgic.

We ordered tuna nachos. Damn tasty. As was the snapper with linguini. The entree needed more tomatoes IMO but it was still good. I never can remember what my wife orders! Too much alcohol I guess.

No more bread brought to the table is my lone complaint, so we ordered flatbread extra. It was good, but different from the stuff they used to bring out to the tables. Not sure if this was already eliminated before the change of address or not. This would be my only complaint.

We are glad we went and wish the owners success.

The plan to activate the drive through is hopefully by the holidays.

We haven't done the bread for quite some time, beginning at the old location. We do offer the Earthstone flat bread for a charge. It's actually an entire pizza dough.



[This message has been edited by Costa and Andreas (edited 8/25/2014 4:21p).]

I'm curious about the change in the gyro sandwich. I'm guessing this version is more authentic.

I like the idea of the lamb--that's not something that I can get most anywhere, but I wasn't crazy about the seasonings, and there seemed to be a lot more sauce. Maybe it is just me--I've been called picky before.

But I'd be interested to hear about what you're doing differently with it.

Good observation

1). The old one had meat that is very commonly procured from a Greek vendor for street Gyros. It's common, but not that great.
2). Actually, what were doing is not very traditional. Its more of a contemporary spin. We slow braise 9 legs of lamb with tomato, onion, garlic, rosemary, basil, and tomato broth, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper. After about two hours the meat is falling apart. The mixture becomes a reduced texture similar to pulled pork. We Earthstone fire the meat to order.
3). Maybe your gyro got a little too much tzatziki. I don't know.
4). We've received very good feedback on the lamb.

Thank you

No such thing as too much tzatziki

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Is that lamb a main or a sandwich? I'll admit that with a glass (or bottle) of Agioritikos, that sounds like a nice meal!

We went on Friday. We were favorably impressed with the redesign, but put in the nook behind the hostess station and didn't like that location.

My friend had the Mediterranean appetizers and added a side of the lamb. The appetizers were very good, very clean, and, perhaps, a bit less seasoned than we would expect when we lived or traveled in the Eastern Mediterranean. The bread which accompanied them - the pizza dough ? - was beautifully browned and crisped. Very, very tasty.

I had the "gyro" sandwich and frankly, was disappointed. It was oddly constructed, all sauce for one-third of it, and had this new "braised" lamb. What does gyro mean? Something that spins or is spun. This wasn't it. My friend and I love lamb, cook it frequently, and eat it at least half the time that it is a choice. But this was not identifiable as lamb for us. It was too falling apart with too little character. This seems to be a case of someone taking a dish your mother made and takes it up a notch so that it is more "gourmet." It might be OK if you never had the original, but it sure as heck isn't Mom's. He had the same lamb as the addition to his appetizers. While we'll get the appetizers again, but agree we would not order this lamb again.

But the service was very good and there was much good to suggest a good outlook. Generally, we thought things were as good as - and probably better than - our most recent visits to the old Church Street location.

We didn't encounter the valet situation as we mostly go to lunch now (after years of eating out 18 meals a week!) and, unfortunately, usually need handicapped parking, which I assume will not be affected by the valet offering. Besides, we must be dragged out to a good restaurant on a Friday or Saturday night, the wrong nights to go out and really judge a restaurant's food or skills.

I ate too much of that delicious bread and couldn't partake in a tart. I'm sure my friend would want one for nostalgia's sake and I'd like the new fig and banana tart. Anything with figs wins my heart.

So, all in all this was a very positive experience. But I do love a good, traditional gyro sandwich or some in Iskender Kabab. And for that, in our still burgeoning metropolitan area, I will still be looking.

The lamb is on the gyro, Greek pizza and Greek burger. We can easily make it into an entree.

In fact, maybe we'll run that on special in a couple weeks with some caramelized onion mashed potatoes and Parmesan cauliflower.

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My personal favorites are the caramelized banana and fig tart...

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O.M.G.

So are is the food delivered on a giant, green, plastic tray?

It has been too packed to even get a parking spot! Wow! Go Eccell! Will try again later this week.

Wife and I went again last night and this time took our 8mo baby. We both had gyro's (yee-row), the gyro discussion in this thread gave me a craving

Gyro is non-traditional but we both liked it. It was different but good. Positive thing about the roast lamb- my 8mo ate it easily, and begged for more

I must admit I like the new Café Eccell way more than the old Luby's, in my 23 years in this town I went to Luby's once, I have been to Eccell twice in 2 weeks.



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FWIW, a friend gave the new gyros a thumbs down. He much preferred the old one.

My friend also brought up a pet peeve of mine which is waiters who don't write orders down. His waiter got a few things wrong with his table's order. I really don't understand the point of not writing an order down. I don't think I've ever described a dinner to a friend and mentioned the waiter memorized our whole table's order but I will bring up a waiter screwing up our order.

Frankly that new lamb sandwich sounds way better than a gyro...actual lamb instead of something processed. Perhaps rename it to head off this mounting stream of negativity?

FlyRod is right, name it something else. If someone orders something multiple times, chances are, they liked it as is. I don't think I've ever ordered something again where I thought, I really didn't like that sandwich the first time I had it but maybe it's much better now (unless of course it's obvious that it's a different sandwich now).

I've been disappointed in some of the tweaks to existing menu items in the past (current mediterranean sea bass versus original version, mediterranean plate no longer has baba ganoush). I hate to sound negative because I love Eccell so please take this as constructive criticism.

Not to derail the thread, but the lack of a good Gyro here forever has always had me craving Gyros.

We went to Austin and went to the food trucks on Rainey st about 1am and I partook on one of these. if you are ever in Austin, after 6pm, I suggest hitting this up. It is about 4 blocks from 6th st.

Big Fat Greek Gyros

With that said, Go Café Eccel!

Just to be clear, I do like the new menu and the tweaking of old items. I think change is good, and for my part, thought the old menu had grown stale.

But Cafe Eccell faces a dilemma of sorts: attract new, younger customers who are aware of how rapidly the competitive restaurant scene in BCS is growing, and at the same time keep the older clientele who are resistant to change in any form. Good luck.

Over the past 25 years there have been probably 50 iterations of the menu, so change has been one of our characteristics.

We never changed the sea bass, we just no longer have it.

We changed back to baba ghanouj mainly because of constructive feedback like your own! Glad to have it back.

I know the owner of My Big Fat Greek Gyros on Rainey. He's a real character from Canada. He does use the premade processed meat FYI. I still like his gyro, though. A lot of street trucks and restaurants add sour cream to their tzatziki. It makes it easier and more palatable to Americans. We stick with Greek Yogurt and a higher proportion of cucumber than normal, so ours isn't quite traditional either, but I'd say more so than adding sour cream.

Thanks again!

Could have been the 1am, 6 hrs of drinking thing that made it taste so good.

Yikes, I'll have to break it to the wife you guys no longer have her favorite dish!

The original version of the mediterranean sea bass had crab scallion rice and asparagus. For the last year or two, it had been changed to mashed potatoes and grilled veggies (zucchini and squash?) We would always just ask for it prepared the original way so it was no big deal.

I understand the reasoning behind tweaking and dropping dishes although it always seemed to happen to my favorite dishes :-(. I like variety but I've been going to Eccell for so long, I've had just about everything on the menu. We don't go as often any more so we tend to just order our favorites. I wish Eccell would start doing special menu items again like the old days.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to going to Eccell again soon.

Thanks CN. We do have a Prime Catch that changes weekly and we definitely plan to resume our weekly specials as soon as we're used to our new space.

Thanks!

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My friend also brought up a pet peeve of mine which is waiters who don't write orders down. His waiter got a few things wrong with his table's order. I really don't understand the point of not writing an order down. I don't think I've ever described a dinner to a friend and mentioned the waiter memorized our whole table's order but I will bring up a waiter screwing up our order.

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THIS! When I went it was quite literally a comedy of errors and the waiter did not write a thing down! You would think after forgetting/omitting the first 2, 3, or 4 things that he would have caught on. The poor manager ended up comping at least 1/3 if not 1/2 of our total bill due to the issues we experienced.

We'll probably be back, but not in the near future.

Maybe there could be two sections of the restaurant. The hostess can ask each party if they want to be seated in the writing, or non-writing section. Then everyone will have their choice of the waiter getting their order correct or not.

Congrats, Costa & Dre.

-a former busser/headwaiter/manager/gm

I admit to not having read all of the posts in this thread, but someone needs to let Cafe Eccell know that they need to update their website.

The old address is still at the bottom and the menu says "Spring 2013" ...

I agree Cafe, your website needs updating.

If you like my website, I can get yours looking good and accurate.

originaltexan@outlook.com

Look the originaltexan website to see what I can do.

I agree Cafe, your website needs updating.

If you like my website, I can get yours looking good and accurate.

originaltexan@outlook.com

Look the originaltexan website to see what I can do.

Thank you yes we are aware about the website. We are building a site as quickly as possible, and it's obviously running a little late. The new address will be cafeeccellbryantx.com.

We are working on it.
Thanks

Great job, Costa. I'm more concerned about the food than the website. Y'all are doing great. So glad to add another high end restaurant back into the fold of the local cadre including The Republic, Christopher's, Madden's, etc.