Hot Luck 2025 Highlights: Top 5 Moments From This Favorite Austin Festival
The 7th annual event offered outstanding food and drink events around town
The meat sweats have finally abated, and we’ve consulted our crumpled, sauce-stained notes and greasy cell phones. After eating and drinking all of the things at the 7th annual Hot Luck 2025 last weekend, from airborne beef ribs to vodka luges, and we’re here to share the top five moments with you:
Brunch
As any restaurant person can tell you, brunch is typically where leftover product meets its demise. But this year’s Camp Sunnyside brunch at Fair Market showed just how good and innovative this oft-overlooked meal can be. Standouts included Comadre Panaderia’s vanilla conchas filled with mesquite cream and served with drinking chocolate, wild sockeye salmon toasties with jalapeno jelly from Seattle’s The Whale Wins, and Poeta’s breakfast sando consisting of two piloncillo pancakes gussied up with melted American cheese, egg, and grilled jalapeno sausage. The latter’s lengthy line is testament to the healing power of fast food-style breakfast fare.
Meat
There was no shortage of meat in all its glorious permutations, but we braved the longest lines to get multiple tastes of Canje’s complex, soul-warming beef curry, Ajja’s succulent, amba-marinated short ribs, Discada’s sweetbread tacos, and Nixta’s glazed, smoked pork belly al pastor tacos. The only downside was the persistent wind at Saturday’s Al Fuego, held at Jester King Brewery, which tragically caused Evan Leroy’s glorious, barbecued beef rib to take flight from our plate and hit the dirt. The spontaneous group dental floss party that followed all of this feasting was also a hoot.
Theatrics
Chef Yoshi Okai of Otoko can always be counted upon for a theatrical performance, and he didn’t disappoint at Friday’s “Night Moves” by breaking down a 100-pound bluefin tuna with a hacksaw. Said fish was then seared and served, providing one of the night’s memorable bites.
Seafood
Seafood was also the star at the Night Moves booth commandeered by Eventide Oyster Co, Mr. Tuna, and Row 34, of Portland, Maine and Boston, respectively. At such a meat-centric event, it was a treat to have a mini raw bar serving up pristine Maine oysters, shrimp ceviche, deconstructed spicy tuna handrolls, brown butter lobster rolls, and grilled mussels in escabeche, chorizo, and charred onion.
Cocktails
There was no shortage of cocktails, but Deep Eddy Vodka brought their A-game by constructing an ice luge delivery system for shots of their pineapple vodka. Props also go to Lunazul Tequila for their frozen margaritas, made on the spot with an ice shaving machine.
That’s a wrap on Hot Luck 2025. For more information, visit hotluckfest.com and follow Hot Luck on Facebook and Instagram at @hotluckfest.