Elixer Coffee

- Location: Eastside - 4209 Airport Blvd. @Mueller Park 
- Hours: Monday - Friday: 7 AM - 11 AM
              Saturday & Sunday: 8 AM - 11 AM
- Telephone: 512-689-1448
- Website: www.elixercoffee.com /  Facebook: elixercoffee /  Twitter: elixercoffee
- Cuisine: Coffee & Breakfast Pastries

Keturah Somerville was a pediatric nurse before she started her family and decided to create a neighborhood coffee shop where she could stay at home with the kids.  She found a ‘52 Studebaker with a converted flatbed that was already outfitted with the espresso machine in Tuscon, Arizona via craigslist.  Keturah loves talking with her customers and getting to know them.  She gets to hear lots of Studebaker-related stories that bring the older customers back to memories of their youth.  The atmosphere of the coffee-car sparks a childlike behavior in one retired couple who come to hula hoop with Keturah.

About her children growing up in the coffee business, Keturah shares: “I have three children and two of them have been avid coffee drinkers since they were very little.  I’m sure they’ll be able to grow up and tell stories about the disk that comes out of the espresso maker.  When you pull a shot, you have a little 2 inch by 1 inch puck – my babies love to break them into crumbles in the yard – they get covered in grounds and wreak of coffee for days.”

Counter Culture

- Location: UT Campus area -120 E. North Loop- @Avenue F
- Hours: Wednesday - Saturday: 12 - 8 PM
                Sunday: 12 - 6 PM
- Telephone: 512-897-2602
- Website: www.countercultureaustin.com / Facebook: Counter Culture / Twitter: CCVegan
- Cuisine: Vegan & Raw foods


Sue Davis traded one art form for another when she moved from a black and white fine art printer in the photography world to a chef in vegan restaurants.  She has been a vegetarian since the early 90’s and has been eating a vegan diet since 2002.  Originally from Massachusetts, she moved to San Francisco in the late 80s, to Austin in 95, and spent some time in LA before returning to Austin to develop her vegan trailer food business.

Sue opened Counter Culture in July of 2009 with a small basic menu that includes mainly sandwiches, salads, raw food and desserts.  The Philly Seitan is probably her best seller and it’s not hard to see why since she makes the seitan herself without the help of preservatives.  You won’t find any tofu on Sue’s menu, she feels like it’s everywhere and is used as a substitute for meat too often.  Rather, she makes everything from scratch.  Since she doesn’t over advertise about her vegan menu, it’s one of her favorite things to serve an unknowing citizen and have them be pleasantly surprised.

In addition to her background with photography and culinary art, Sue is a vinyl record collector and former DJ.  She has singer/songwriter-style acoustic music at her trailer during Sunday brunches.  Sue rationalizes, “A brunch tab can get pretty high if you order mimosas, but here it’s different.  Every Sunday I do a different themed brunch from Southern home cooking to breakfast burritos, and you can bring whatever you want to drink.”

Max Parfait

- Location & Hours: 
  Roving - follow on Twitter and Facebook or sign up for newsletter to learn varying times and locations.
  Saturdays: 9 AM - 1 PM - 4th and Guadalupe @Austin Farmers Market
  Sundays: 11 AM - 3 PM - 414 Waller St - @HOPE Farmers Market
- Telephone: 512-522-6514
- Website: www.maxparfait.com / Facebook: Max Parfait / Twitter: maxparfait
- Cuisine: Texas Burgers & Belgian Fries


Zarghun and Edeaicsa (Eddy) Dean opened Max Parfait on July 4, 2010 after a ten year run starting and selling Tribeza magazine.  It might surprise you to find out that Zarghun passed up a career in law to pursue a trailer food business but he seems destined to be successful at whatever he puts his heart into.  Regarding the leap into the food industry, he explains, “Food has been the center of my family as long as I can remember.  I’m originally from Afghanistan, I was 8 when we moved here.  A lot of Afghan families would have a weekly get together and bring food and prepare something.  My mom was the stand out cook in that community – she did a phenomenal job of cooking for us – the burger she made was one of them.  So once I met my wife and we got married, she is from Veracruz, Mexico and she is a phenomenal cook when it comes to Mexican food.  She and my mom really bonded over the cooking and passage of information took place as a result of that.”




Their menu is limited to a few items that they do really well with the burger being Zarghun’s favorite and their best seller.  In his words, “We used a recipe my mom developed and passed on to my wife – my wife tinkered with it and she makes home made buns.  It’s a stand out burger; we season it a bit so it’s different from other burgers you’re going to eat in Austin, Texas.  We wood fire it so it adds another dimension.” 

The couple wasn’t crazy about offering a veggie burger, so Eddy came up with a recipe for a portabella sandwich for any vegetarians who might come by and it has been surprisingly popular with even their meat eating customers.  Their Belgian fries are right up there with the burger in terms of crow favorites.  I asked Zarghun to explain what makes it ‘Belgian’ and he said, “It is the process of cooking them.  They are cooked twice – at a lower temperature first, and then the fries have to rest and sweat a little.  Then you cook them a second time at a higher temperature.  This gives them a crispy outside and a mushy inside like baked potatoes.  We go a step further by using organic potatoes and we fry them in olive oil.”


As far as their name ‘Max Parfait’, it was inspired by an old duke Ellington song that was a tribute to his drummer Max Roach.  When Zarghun heard the song and album he thought about a fictional character called Max Parfait and the trailer was born.

East Side King

- Location: Eastside - 1618 1/2 E 6th St - @Liberty Bar
- Hours: Everyday: 7 PM - 1:45 AM
- Telephone: 512-422-5884
- Website: www.eastsidekingaustin.com / Facebook: East Side King / Twitter: eastsidekingatx
- Cuisine: Asian Fusion

The famed East Side King trailer concept of “Good South Asian Street Food” was developed by business partners Moto and Paul and opened in December of 2009 since it seemed to be lacking in the Austin area.  They found their trailer appropriately sitting on the East side of Austin in someone’s yard via craigslist.  Hailing from a small island in the south part of Japan, Moto has been in Austin for 20 years.  The trailer’s namesake comes from Moto’s Blues and Soul band which has the same title.  Some of their best customers are bar tenders from Liberty bar and chefs from Mulberry.  The chicken karaage is a best seller and Moto’s personal favorite item on the menu

Along Came a Slider

- Location: Waller Trailer Park Eatery - 1112 E. 6th Street - @Waller

- Hours: Everyday - 12 - 3 PM / 7 PM - 3 AM 

- Hours: 512- 522-8284

- Website: http://www.alongcameaslider.com/ / Facebook: Along Came a Slider

- Cuisine: Burgers - sliders fashioned upscale

Business partners Tyler Johnson & Jeff Shaver have taken their 26 combined experience in restaurants and developed a new concept for Austinites to enjoy.  These two Marriott chefs ‘Along Came a Slider’ concept involves using sustainable, local and organic products that are raised humanely as often as possible.  Why Sliders, we asked?  “We see it as being the perfect vehicle to do any dish – classical French, Asian, Mexican and beyond.”

For Tyler, nothing beats their “Barbacoa Style Brisket” which starts with pressure cooked all natural beef brisket that has been marinated using a traditional mexican barbacoa recipe.  This gets topped off with a lime infused crema and house pickled red onions.  Austinites who love their tex-mex will agree that the crowd favorite has been the “Chicken Fried Guac”, which besides the corn guacamole has crispy tortilla strips and a STR sauce featuring smoked, toasted, and roasted chiles.  Jeff's favorite is their "WD Pig" short for 'wired and drunk'.  As the name implies, the all natural pork shoulder is rubbed with a pecan coffee and braised in Firemans 4 before it lands on a bed of jalapeno cole slaw and gets drizzled with a Texas Pinot  Noir BBQ sauce.  All of their signature sliders are served on preservative-free fresh baked daily buns from the New World Bakery.

Jeff was born in Flatonia and Tyler in Kansas, but they both agreed on Austin as a landing place for their trailer food business: “Austin, Texas is one of the greatest cities.  It is beautiful, there is a lot going on for it. I (Jeff) also do music so I can release that passion as well here.  It’s a funky cool town people are open to new ideas and new concepts.”

Kate's Southern Comfort

- Location: Southside - 1900 Barton Springs Rd - @Sterzing St.
- Telephone: 512-573-5215
- Hours: Every Day (except Tuesday): 11:30 AM - 9 PM
- Facebook: Kate’s Southern Comfort
- Cuisine: Comfort Food - Meat Pies

Kate Bellinger has been a chef in Austin for over 20 years with experience in such well-known restaurants as Shoal Creek, Shoreline, East Side Café and more.  She had been watching local trailer food businesses explode in the past year.   When she was unfortunately laid off from an executive chef position, she decided it was time to give opening her own business a shot.

The concept behind Kate’s Southern Comfort is Louisiana Fried Pies.  The pies are “affordable for me to make, affordable for anyone to eat, and they are good grab-and-go food you can take on a picnic, down to the (barton) springs, or sit at the trailer,” Kate says.  She grew up in East Texas in the early 60’s with some pretty bland casseroles but upon moving to Louisiana, Kate learned to cook from people’s grandmothers at big Sunday afternoon family get-togethers.  Kate’s fried pies involve an Argentine crust and she makes all the fillings from scratch.  The ‘Nak.i.tish’ has a spicy, peppery pork filling that is super savory.  Although her crusts do contain some beef fat, she gives a nod to her vegetarian customers with the ‘Humble Pie’ which involves mustard and collard greens along with sweet potato.  You might also be interested in the ‘Bleudan’ which was made by mistake but contains boudin sausage and bleu cheese.  Although Kate claims not to have a best seller or a personal favorite, she speaks highly of the current special which is a hatch green chile chicken and cheese fried pie that melts in your mouth.  But don’t take Kate’s word for it.  She’s had customers from New Orleans that have been so impressed they had to call their Meemaw and come back for a second helping.

Man Bites Dog

- Location: South Austin Trailer Park & Eatery - 1311 S. 1st St - @Elizabeth 
- Hours: Sunday - Thursday: 11 AM - 9 PM
               Friday & Saturday: 11 AM - 10 PM
- Telephone: 512-445-5591
- Website: www.manbitesdog.com / Facebook: Man Bites Dog / Twitter: manbitesdogtx
- Cuisine: Hot Dogs


After receiving his MBA in May of 2009 and with 12 years of restaurant experience, Jeremiah opened the first Man Bites Dog trailer in November of 2009 and the second in March of 2010.  After having spent some time in Chicago, he decided there wasn’t anything like the dogs there back in Austin, so he put together some 40-odd variations around a hot dog theme and narrowed the menu down to 12 of his favorite combinations.  The Buffalo Hottie, which won the critics choice award for the best nontraditional hot dog in the Chronicle Restaurant Poll is a Jeremiah’s personal favorite, but the Abe Froman is his best seller. 

Originally from Bowie, Texas, Jeremiah grew up in Oklahoma.  He was brought to Austin for his 21^st bday and knew that this is where he wanted to stay.  Simply put, Jeremiah states what Austinites love about our town, “Austin has all the big city stuff in a small city environment.”  He employs artists, waiters and people seeking part time work while they pursue other endeavors.  His best suggestion for anyone wanting to get into the trailer food business? “Learn to be handy.  My first trailer on South 1^st – I thought it was a good deal but I spent a bunch of money fixing it up.  I know a lot more about trailer plumbing and electrical than I did before – it’s good to fix it yourself if on small budget.”