UYE Yelpers Toast & Taste @ TRACE

What began as an open UYE for ~12+ turned into a fantastic dinner, including a birthday celebration, amongst 6 great friends. Unilocal Austin recently hosted an Elite event at TRACE and those of us that were lucky enough to attend received a generous $ 100 gift card as part of our «goody» bag! A few peeps at the party suggested we should have a UYE to follow and use said GC, so I decided to coordinate the get together. Welllllll… turns out those folks had changed their minds and everybody seemed to have redeemed their GC within a day or two after receiving it (talk about burning a hole in y our pocket — LOL!). No worries. All is meant to be and so this is how the UYE turned out…
absolutely fabulous of course! Amy D, Nico A, James H, Nina H, Rob, M, and I began our evening at TRACE’s bar with a few HH drinks and apps (the Mushroom Cheese thing is bomb diggity and the House Pickle Pot was a hit!). After everyone had arrived, we were escorted to a beautiful table at the far end of the restaurant.
The management and staff were all super accommodating and attentive. It was only 6 of us after all, but anyone who is familiar with Unilocal-​natics knows how overwhelming and exciting we can get when it comes to food and drinks — like lion cubs trying to claw their cute little paws through cage bars to get the first piece of bread sat on a table across from it. Turns out only one person in our group had actually dined at TRACE before (and it had been quite a while) and I was the only holder of the golden GC, so I was happy to share a bit of the wealth! With all six people trying to talk at once (have you ever met a Unilocaler?; that’s how we roll), we still managed to order several apps for the table and each get our drink of choice — very patient waitperson I must say!
Shared appetizers for the table: Sweetbreads, yummy creaminess, not greasy (albeit just a tad salty for my liking) were a hit, assorted bread and butters… and so on. Various entrées for each. The consensus around the table seemed to sadly be that the main courses were from marginal to a-​ok for most (a few good ideas, but failed on execution — I won’t speak for everyone; please see their reviews including mine to follow); however, the group made it an over-​the-​top wonderful evening!
At the end of the meal, a lovely piece of cake with «Happy Birthday James» written on the plate was delivered with the executive pastry chef shortly following. Chef was super friendly, explained her approaches a bit, and was even gracious enough to take a photo with the bday boy. I must say, if you want a good dessert, TRACE seems like a fantastic option. The chef is one smart (and talented) cookie! ;)
We all decided to wander across the street to another establishment for another celebratory libation, and even though the W Hotel validates valet parking when dining at TRACE for 7 bucks instead of the standard $ 17 for 3 hours, TRACE’S manager was nice enough to sign off on our valet for unlimited time for free! 5 star treatment!
Thank you to everyone for coming out to play! Had a blast and enjoyed everyone’s company, as always! A truly great group of peeps! :)
And James, Happy Birthday to you again my friend… you got your cake and we all ate it too. Hope your wish comes true!
Now that’s some Unilocal love… xo!

I had a huge fail even before I arrived at the event, I got CRAVE and TRACE mixed up. Darn those 5 letters fancy restaurants! Anyways, after I figured out where the hell I was really supposed to go, I caught Dawn H, Rob M, Amy D, Rob M, James H and Nina H wrapping up at Happy Hour and about to head into the main dining area. I’ve been to Trace once (or twice) and I can’t really recall many details (you can guess why), so I was excited to put this place through its paces after not being able to attend the much heralded Unilocal event last February.
Eats:
— Appetizers: Easy Tiger Bread & Country Fried Sweet Breads
— Entrée: Niman Ranch Lamb
— Dessert: Chocolat Au Lait & Flourless chocolate cake
Drink
— Spiced Ginger Lemonade (Dripping Springs Vodka, Pimm’s No. 1, All Spice Ginger Syrup, Lemon, Soda)
The Easy Tiger Bread was a pretty phenomenal gluten wonder (GF people avert your eyes) and the spreads it came with were quite innovative (special mention for the beet butter). The sweet breads was just that, oh so sweet (not literally) with great breading and consistency. The only downside was that extra orders of bread cost extra, boo!
After much deliberation, I ended up going with the lamb entrée which I found to be better than I had expected. The lamb came how I ordered (medium well) and the sidekicks of greens and squash made it quite a delight to eat. Last but not least, the desserts, which I was too full to try but did for the sake of this review (hey, I’m taking one for the team here) were both excellent. The pastry chef even came out to greet us and walked us her through her beautiful creations. The chocolat au lait (try saying that ten times over fast) was a beautiful marriage of ganache and mousse and I enjoyed every single bite. Finally, the birthday surprise dessert James H received was the flourless chocolate cake which was nothing but net. Thanks for sharing!
What a fantastic, intimate UYE and a big shoutout to Dawn H for putting this together and also planning the festivities for James H’s birthday! I’m sure this will be one for him to remember. Happy Birthday again!

Unfortunately I missed the Unilocal Elite event at TRACE a few weeks back due to a scheduling conflict so I was thrilled to find out that Dawn H was organizing a UYE to go back. And the fact that it was scheduled on my actual birthday was just a bonus. I’d get to spend the evening with some of my favorite Unilocal buddies.
We arrived just as Happy Hour was ending so I was able to enjoy a Blur Hefe courtesy of Dawn and Bobby and nibble on a couple of apps at the bar that included some type of cheese and spinach dip and pickled vegetables. Once our entire party (which included Nico A and the one and only Amy D) was seated at the table, Dawn presented me with a thoughtful birthday card and gift with a humorous toast.
As for the food, I really enjoyed the sweet breads and the Easy Tiger bread appetizers. The sweet breads were seasoned in a crispy batter not unlike fried chicken but the meat pieces were soft and almost creamy in consistency. The Tiger bread came with three different spreads including an amazing beet butter.
For my entrée I ordered the Niman Ranch Ribeye which was cooked correctly and tasted great. But it was definitely thinner than I’d expected it to be. Still it was a fine piece of meat.
As part of dessert, the staff at TRACE decorated a plate of the chocolate cake with berries and mousse for me and the pastry chef even came by to talk to us and let us know that our desserts were gluten free.
The service overall was great and the restaurant manager was even nice enough to comp our valet. We ended up grabbing a final drink for the night at the Gingerman before calling it a night. But as usual with this group of Unilocalers, the evening just seemed to fly right by. Big props to Dawn for organizing, I truly had a blast!