A Decade of Emmer & Rye, and the Community That Grew With It
As Emmer & Rye celebrates 10 years in Austin, Chefs Kevin Fink and Tavel Bristol-Joseph reflect on the sustainability, collaboration and community behind the restaurant’s success
Ten years ago, Emmer & Rye set out to become something more than a restaurant. From the beginning, chefs and co-owners Kevin Fink and Tavel Bristol-Joseph imagined a place rooted in seasonality, local farmers, and whole-animal cooking, but equally grounded in hospitality, culture, and care for the people who make and share the food. A decade later, that vision has only deepened, most recently recognized with a Green Michelin Star honoring the restaurant’s long-standing commitment to sustainability.
Over the years, Emmer & Rye has positioned itself as more than a dining destination, cultivating a sense of community that extends beyond the table. That ethos is reflected in initiatives like Breaking Bread, the restaurant’s ongoing dinner series that brings Austin chefs together to collaborate, cook and give back. One recent Breaking Bread dinner featured Margarita Kallas-Lee of Scratch Restaurants for a collaborative menu, with proceeds benefiting The Kindness Campaign. The evening balanced creativity and generosity, offering enough structure to feel special while remaining relaxed and welcoming.
That same spirit carries through every part of the experience, from menus designed to spark curiosity to dishes that return season after season as quiet staples. As Emmer & Rye marks its 10-year anniversary and a new season of Breaking Bread dinners, Fink and Bristol-Joseph reflect on what it means to build something lasting in an industry defined by constant change, and how sustainability, collaboration and a people-first ethos continue to guide their work.
Kelly: Ten years is a huge milestone. When you think back to opening Emmer & Rye, what did you imagine this restaurant would become, and how does that vision compare to where you are today?
Kevin Fink: Honestly, when we opened Emmer & Rye, I expected to work as the chef in the restaurant for 20 years each day until I retired. It was built as a space around the things we love, and that give us energy in food. It is still built around the things we love in food, listening to the land, freshly milled grains, whole animal butchery and using preservation techniques as the base of our flavors.
Tavel Bristol-Joseph: I imagined it being an institution, a trendsetter for what food should look and taste like when working with local farmers and vendors, one that is a true representation of culture and highlights Texas ingredients. I think we’ve done just that.
Kelly: What’s something you’ve held onto from day one and what’s something that’s evolved completely?
KF: We have stayed rooted in our commitment to whole animal, sourcing within Texas, and pastas being a mainstay of the menu. We have evolved away from the order-at-the-table cart service. We truly loved it, but Covid really made us reflect on it, and we never came back to it.
TBJ: What we’ve held onto is our ethos of people first, through food and hospitality. We’ve evolved our leadership style by empowering our staff and removing ourselves from the day-to-day operations, and that is a progression most leaders dream of.
Kelly: Are there ingredients or techniques that have become personal signatures for you both over the years?
KF: We utilize lactic acid brine from the fermentation run off in so many of our items. It is incredibly nuanced, umami, salty and bright all at once. It is a great backdrop to how we cook.
And, I think our pork carnitas technique at Emmer is something of a signature for us. We take the front shoulder of a Berkshire pig, cure it for 2 days, and then confit it in its rendered fat. We have utilized this technique in many restaurants since then, but the cure time, temp, and exact cut were perfected at Emmer.
Kelly: The Breaking Bread series feels like such a celebration of community and creativity. How did it start, and what do you hope guests take away from it?
KF: We have always brought in chefs from outside of Austin for our cooks and the community to try their food. Breaking Bread was a reflection on how amazing Austin is without having to look outside. One of our corporate chefs, Jorge Hernandez, coined the name, and it has just felt right since the first one.
Kelly: Are there any dream collaborations: chefs, artists or even local makers, that you’d love to bring into the series?
TBJ: It would be amazing to work with a chef like Jose Andres, who has done so much for communities across the world.
Kelly: What does community mean to you now? In your kitchen, with your staff and across the Austin dining scene?
KF: Community to us is not just the team we work with, but the people that live in it — the farmers, the pride of the area. We are proud to be members of this community and to continue to push to make it better for our team within, our guests, the farmers and ranchers, and the broader Austin restaurant community.
TBJ: For us, the meaning of community has never changed. It’s always been about creating space for people to share, grow, support and inspire. The only thing that has changed is the magnitude of which our community is. We’ve built communities in Austin, San Antonio and all across the country through events, peers and guests alike.
Kelly: Can you share a behind-the-scenes moment where a guest chef completely shifted the way you thought about a dish or technique?
KF: We were blessed to cook with Daniela Soto-Innes of Rubra, and Rico Torres and Diego Galicia of Mixtli, and I can vividly remember how the impacts of charred and burnt fruits, vegetables and seeds were used. That extraction of intense bitterness and sweetness changed how we looked at those parameters in our sauces and broths.
TBJ: In the early days of Emmer & Rye, we did a collaboration with Chef Trevor Moran from Locust in Nashville. He never took himself too seriously. He allowed ingredients to tell him to go in a savory or sweet direction. I thought that was brilliant. He was using mushrooms in his desserts, and his response when people asked why was ‘Why not?’
Kelly: If you could design the next 10 years of Emmer & Rye, what would you want them to look and feel like?
KF: We are looking to take the next step in collaboration and sourcing to make Central Texas’s local food one of the most dynamic networks of powerful farms, restaurants and retailers in the U.S. We are in a really special growing region that should be synonymous with great quality produce and animals, like California or the Midwest.
TBJ: For the next 10 years of Emmer & Rye Hospitality Group, we would like to continue evolving into different markets across the country with the focus always on people, locality, seasonality and sustainability.
Kelly: Earning a Green Michelin Star feels like both recognition and responsibility. Has it inspired any new goals or ideas for how Emmer & Rye can continue leading on sustainability?
KF: Sustainability has been something we’ve been driven by since day one. We’ve recently started using upcycled beef tallow as liquid soap in our restaurants. We’re always happy to discuss the how and why behind what we do so others can replicate it — it doesn’t need to be unique to us. It’s a real commitment and often a financial burden, which means you need partners who believe in it for the long haul.
Kelly: The cacio e pepe gets a lot of love. I’ve been at tables where we’ve ordered a second one for dessert. Same for the Johnny Cakes. What’s another dish we shouldn’t sleep on?
KF: Whenever a tartare is on the menu, get that! Also, the tagliatelle right now is lights out, same with the Sweet Potato Tamal.
TBJ: The Chocolate Chips Dessert. it’s the perfect blend of utilizing fermentation, local ingredients and it’s fun.
Kelly: What’s your go-to meal after a long service?
KF: If it is a long service, I will smash some Johnny Cakes and Relish. If I am home, it is a glass of Mezcal and some pasta with butter and fresh herbs.
TBJ: I can always crush an order of Johnny Cakes from Emmer & Rye or an order of Jerk Chicken from Canje.
Kelly: Finish this sentence: The best nights at Emmer & Rye are when. . .
KF: The best nights at Emmer & Rye are when it feels like long-time friends reconnecting while one of their new friends hosts them at their house, whose significant other happens to be a classically trained chef who just went to the farmers market to make this meal just for them!
TBJ: The music is right, and there’s a buzz of people laughing, cheersing and plates hitting the pass. How I like to describe it is ‘vibing.’
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