Food: Elizabeth Street Cafe Opens on South First Street

South First Street continued its metamorphosis from bohemian enclave to foodie hotspot with December’s opening of Elizabeth Street Café. The newly opened French Vietnamese restaurant is the latest from Larry Maguire and Tommy Moorman, the duo behind Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue and Perla’s Seafood and Oyster Bar.

Similar to Lambert’s fancy twist on traditional Texas barbecue, Elizabeth Street Café offers gussied up French bakery and Vietnamese favorites, with extended hours. Breakfast options include ham and gruyere croissants, nutella and banana crepes, and pork belly and poached egg steamed buns. Lunch and dinner features Vietnamese specialties such as spring rolls, buns, and noodle dishes.

Early reports have been decidedly mixed, with most complaints directed towards the high price points of typically budget friendly dishes like pho and bahn mi sandwiches. This initial resistance is nothing new to management; Lambert’s also faced similar opposition when it first opened in 2006.

While rumors of a $22 seafood pho are true, the majority of Elizabeth Street’s lunch and dinner menu is priced $15 and under. Elevated prices can be attributed to the use of locally sourced, organic, and higher quality ingredients. For example, the ‘infamous’ pho does feature copious amounts of Dungeness crab, Gulf shrimp, and red snapper, not mystery krab stick.

Are more authentic, cheaper bowls of pho found in one of North Lamar’s famed Vietnamese hole in the walls? Perhaps, but Elizabeth Street Café hopes to be a casual neighborhood eatery offering not only fine food, but a full dining experience. Whether the restaurant’s detractors will keep newcomers away is yet to be seen, but if Lambert’s continued popularity is any indication of Elizabeth Street’s future success, chances are, probably not.

Elizabeth Street Café is located at 1503 South First Street in 78704. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner served daily from 7am - late Monday through Friday and 8am - late Saturday through Sunday.

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By Ginny Bell in Food on January 13, 2012 9:00 AM 0 Comments

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Stan Wilson

If I'm feeling truly principled I can justify the higher prices here and know I am eating some of the highest quality ingredients around. Otherwise the traditional and still healthy noodle shops around N. Lamar (and similar joints around town) are a much much better deal.

I had the beef pho here and the stock was closer to the beginnings of American beef stew than the stock used in the traditional shops. I asked for extra limes but it didn't really help. It tasted like some of the fundamental southeast Asian spices were missing.

I think most of the negative feedback comes from people like me who've never seen those prices for this type of cuisine, and wandered in expecting to spend less than ten bucks. Because Vietnamese cuisine is so relatively consistent, I think people just see the road sign and expect what they've always expected. Some may enjoy the shift, while others may walk away with resentment.

Maybe the place can reposition itself a bit from a marketing communications standpoint to alleviate the surprise sticker shock and deviations from traditional flavors. The tradeoff might be some of the foot traffic, but they're usually packed anyway. They might as well pack it with people who are already a bit more in the loop on the idea.