Frank Nac!

Hot Dog and Cold Beer fans of East Texas, rejoice: Frank is heading your way soon! We are super-excited to announce that our second Frank location will open in historic Nacogdoches, Texas later this month. The Hot Dogs Cold Beer gang is currently working day and night to make it happen.

Our Nac partner Aaron Montes felt the city needed a unique restaurant, and visited Austin on a mission to bring the best eats in town back east with him. When he found Frank he knew it was a perfect fit. After a few dogs and coldies with Aaron and his wife Emily, we agreed.

Literally constructed AROUND the oldest existing restaurant in Nacogdoches, Frank is located on the corner of North and Hayter, just four blocks from Stephen F. Austin University. SFA Lumberjacks, get ready for some awesome grub.

Here's a little insight from the Daily Sentinel:Purveyors of Artisan Sausage

Here are a few pics showing the build out::

The original restaurant structure opened circa 1950:



The existing drive through menu:



Construction has started and we are utilizing salvaged barn tin and cedar:






Stay tuned for more details and pics y'all!

Yay Cassie!

ZU Vodka Cocktail Competition from digital-dinG Productions on Vimeo.

Congrats to Frank's own Cassie Stewart for pulling down 2nd in the Zu cocktail competiton. There was some serious competition! Congrats to Peché and East Side Showroom too!

Here's the full story from Austin Lifestyle Magazine.

You’ve been to the bars, you’ve seen the flaming glasses and flying bottles. We’ve even featured some of the more creative bartenders in the pages of Austin Lifestyle. But that’s a bit of flash and glamour, adding performance to presentation and often distracting from a product that’s too sweet or unbalanced. So, in the interest of taste alone, ZU Vodka and ALM hosted a more objective look at the cocktail in Austin. We took over Frank downtown and turned it into half cocktail party, half blind taste test. A panel of three judges evaluated nine contestants from the best that Austin’s bars have to offer, holding out an all-expense paid trip to compete in “Tales Of The Cocktail” in New Orleans as reward for the best concoction and its maker.

By fortunate happenstance (and ZU Vodka’s kindness), I happened to be one of the judges. And, while it sounds prestigious, looking back, it’s quite the marathon. Even in sample size servings, nine tests is quite a lot, and it’s difficult to separate a vast variety of tastes beyond a certain point. Luckily, the party guests were encouraged to provide their own opinions and supplement the panel of judges. Now, while we never lost objectivity and didn’t once descend into basic or banal evaluations (“This one: good. That one: bad” never appeared on any of our judging sheets), it certainly was a challenge to decide what drink stood above the rest.

ZU Vodka was required for all cocktails, and the bisongrass spirit has a delicate and natural taste that can be overpowered and lost in standard mixers and thoughtless combinations. Of course, we were in the hands of very skilled bartenders from around the city, including Perla’s, Peche, Eastside Showroom, Paggi House, McCormick’s & Schmick’s – Downtown, Frank, and The Tavern. Each brought a unique twist and kept our tastebuds guessing. With no access to the craftsmen and women, we judges could go by taste alone and, for the most part, agreed with the voice of the crowd in attendance. The winners, featured in Austin Lifestyle, can be found around Austin and we encourage everyone to visit them in their native state and see if you agree or disagree with our results. Check out the video of that evening’s events below and connect with us on Facebook to track the winner, Justin, as he ventures to New Orleans to represent ZU Vodka, Austin Lifestyle, and our city’s great movement in cocktail couture.

Winners were: 1st place – Justin Elliott, Péché - The Pulaski Bridge Swizzle [ZU Vodka, homemade Jujube (green date) cordial, Prosecco, Hand-cracked ice, Swizzled with a candied bison bone] | 2nd place – Cassie Stewart, Frank - Summer Grass [ZU Vodka, cucumber, blood orange juice, fresh lemonade, soda water] | 3rd place – Chauncy James, East Side Show Room - Polish Pony [ZU Vodka, Galliano, Cocchi Americano, Aqua Vit, Campari, orange twist]

Frank on Google Places!

Sports Fans! Here's a mighty fine little film about Frank made by Agency Charlie for Google Places.

Google Places Austin - Frank Restaurant from Agency Charlie on Vimeo.

Click Here to Embiggen

You can see the whole series here and we suggest you do because they are real nice.

Agency Charlie Google Places

Thanks AC!

West Texas Wildfire Relief Benefit

Hotel San Jose, Jo’s Coffee, Decoder Ring and Frank announce the West Texas Wildfire Relief Benefit to be held on May 6th in the Hotel San Jose/Jo’s parking lot from 6 to 10 pm.

The West Texas Wildfire Relief Benefit will feature live music performances by Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, Amy Cook & David Garza, and Moonlight Towers. Food and beverage sponsors include Shiner, Lone Star, PBR, Pearl, Frank, The Woodland and Lambert’s Downtown Barbecue with more TBA. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Jeff Davis County Relief Fund, Marfa Public Radio, and the Marfa and Fort Davis Volunteer Fire Departments. The event is located at 1316 S. Congress Ave. Austin, TX 78704.

In addition to the music and food there will be a silent auction featuring amazing gifts form local Austin Businesses, Artists and Musicians and live on site T-shirt printing by Industry. So come ready to pick up some great stuff and help out a lot of folks who really need it.

The wildfires in Far West Texas, which have been burning since April 9 and are currently only 66% contained, have consumed over 275,000 acres, destroyed dozens of homes, killed livestock and wildlife, and jeopardized the livelihoods of countless ranchers and residents. Extremely dry conditions coupled with high winds continue to fuel the fires, which gained new momentum as recently as April 27, when the damaged area grew by 44,000 acres in a single day.

The Jeff Davis County Relief Fund has been established to help those affected by the Rock House Fire started in Marfa, TX. For more info on the Jeff Davis County Relief Fund, see jeffdaviscountyrelief.org.

Marfa Public Radio serves a critical role in the spread of emergency information in the Far West Texas Region and has acted as an invaluable resource during the wildfires to announce evacuations, coordinate local relief efforts and keep the community informed. For more information about Marfa Public Radio or to listen to live streaming coverage of the fires, visit marfapublicradio.org.

The Marfa and Fort Davis Volunteer Fire Departments consist of local area volunteers who were first responders to the wildfires and who have been working tirelessly in cooperation with the Texas Forest Service to get the fires contained even as they threaten their own homes and communities. For more information on these local heroes, please see marfavfd.org and fortdavisvfd.org, respectively.

List of silent auction donors

Will Johnson
Decoder Ring
Mellow Johnny's
Dean Frederick
Waterloo Records
DJ Stout/Pentagram
Botticelli's
Vespaio
Adam Voorhes
Matt Rainwaters
Bryan Schutmaat
Wilco
Barley Swine
La Condessa
Antonelli's
Transmission/mohawk
C3
Spoon
Spartan
Folk Wellness Co
Alamo Drafthouse
SXSW
Stag
Sound Screen Design
Dave Meade Photography
Domy Books
James Stevens/Moonlight Towers
Erika Wennerstrom/Heartless Bastards
White Stripes/Raconteurs/Third Man Records
P Terry's
Matt Genitempo
Dirk Fowler

Commemorative art for the event:
Mishka Westell www.mishkawestell.com


Noel Waggener www.subculturepress.com


Justin David Cox www.gotopublicschool.com

Man the old timers whipped up some strange crap

Miss Jablonski passed a couple "vintage" advertisements to us recently that are so good we had to post them. I believe these came from old Life magazines. Thankfully there have been some culinary advancements since the days of granny Jello salads and stuff made from cream of mushroom soup. Odds are you won't see any of this on the ol' Frank menu but them cheese boats are intriguing!


Sausage Sorcery!



Hot Dog Heroics!

Food Dude!

Holy Crap it's been a while. Sorry to be so lame, we promise to start stirring it up on the intertoobs. We've been plenty busy down at Frank and folks are noticing. First up is Spike TVs Food Dude. He came on down and dug into the Jackalope. Pretty funny fella. All right, all right, all right.

The Jackalope | SpikeTV | SPIKE.com

So You Want To Be A Coffee Star?

Well maybe you should head down to Frank and see how it's done. Did that sound cocky? Yes, yes it did. Maybe it's because our man Tyler Wells placed top three in the Regional Barista Championships and is heading to the Nationals. Or maybe it's because Frank baristas took the top three places in the last Latte Art Smackdown. Either way we love coffee.

If you don't happen to live in Austin David Hobizal made a real nice video for ya to peruse over the intertoobs.

Enjoy!




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