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Top Tables by DICK HOLLAND
SEVERAL
DECADES AGO, the small town of Fredericksburg became a popular shopping destination in the Texas Hill Country. On Saturdays and Sundays especially, FredBurg (as some locals call it) is packed with cars and pedestrians. Fine home decor is for sale on Main Street, along with designer women’s clothes, extravagant garden furniture, and posh outfits for pampered children and pets. The cafes and bakeries in town support this phenomenon, including traditional places like the Dietz Bakery, which usually sells out of bread and baked goods by mid morning, and new ones like Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe. For many visitors, a trip to the Hill Country is not complete without lunch in one of Fredericksburg’s biergarten restaurants. All that’s well and good, but if you drive west out of Fredericksburg on S 290, and bear right on US 87, about 10 miles from town, you’ll come to a converted gas station with a metal roof showing the fading emblem of a Texas star and the words “Hill Top” painted on it. After the scented candles and white wine of Fredericksburg, this looks like it might be a good old-fashioned burger and beer joint. It is that, but it is much, much more: a first-class seafood restaurant that also features Louisiana and Greek cooking and some of the most authentic blues music
you’ll ever hear.
Just inside the door on the right is a counter with a few backless bar stools --a good place to sit if you’re eating alone at lunchtime. The rest of the cafe is in a sizable room off to the left that is heavily decorated with music posters, weathered signs, and objects that some might call folk art. The Hill Top is a little place, and upon entering, you may encounter the heavenly aroma of simmering seafood gumbo coming out of the kitchen. On a recent visit, I quickened my step to a table so I could examine the lunch menu and order right away.
I took the plunge and ordered a cup of gumbo and a
fried oyster po’ boy. The gumbo was the real deal, full of fresh, sweet tasting Gulf shrimp, and the sandwich was a New Orleans-style “dressed” po’ boy. The oysters were crunchy, the roll tasted homemade, and the dressing was piquant. And then Johnny Nicholas joined me
at my table.
Johnny Nicholas is the straw that stirs the drink at the Hill Top -- owner, kitchen supervisor, front man, greeter, player of the old upright piano in the corner of the big room, and singer/blues guitar player extraordinaire.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he washes dishes at midnight. My interest was divided equally between the Hill Top’s fine reputation as an eating place and Johnny’s somewhat underground reputation as one of the country’s finest blues interpreters.
The history of the cafe is almost as colorful as the owner’s musical anecdotes. In 1981,
Johnny and his wife, Brenda Schlaudt, moved to the Hill Country and soon
bought the abandoned gas station, set up a room to live in, and cooked and kept warm using a wood-burning stove. Johnny and Brenda both liked to cook and before long were cooking for their friends. Johnny’s recipes came straight from his Greek family in Rhode Island and Texas. Brenda’s were pure
Cajun-style delicacies from her grandma’s kitchen in Port Arthur. Brenda’s description of cooking homemade sausage and chicken gumbo in a big iron pot on the wood stove makes you think you’ve been transported to someplace far from the Texas Hill Country -- say someplace in the swampy woods between St. Martinsville and New Iberia.
Shortly after Johnny and Brenda were married, they opened the Hill Top for business. The cafe’s Web site (www.hilltopcafe.com) accurately describes the menu as: “Greek, Cajun, and Texas comfort foods.” Additional links on the web site explain the mystery of the fresh shrimp, crab, oysters, and flounder found in
abundance in this unlikeliest of places: Johnny and Brenda also run a B&B
in Port Mansfield, on the Laguna Madre. During our conversation, Johnny hinted at close ties to several local fishermen who provide fresh fish and
crab meat for the Hill Top.
Changing the subject to music, I told Johnny I had seen him play two powerful shows in Austin, one at Antone’s and the other at a Texas Folklife Resources concert at the Paramount Theatre. These were around the time of the release of his tribute album to the late Doug Sahm, Rockin’ My Blues to Sleep: Texas/Louisiana Blues and Dance Hall Favorites. His band was called Johnny Nicholas and the Texas All-Stars, and featured many of Sahm’s West Side Horns, all from San Antonio, including the great Rocky Morales on
tenor saxophone. I asked him, “So how did a Rhode Island blues-loving guitar player end up in Texas?”
Briefly, Johnny grew up in the Rhode Island and New England blues-scene that included his childhood friend Duke Robillard and all the personnel of Roomful of Blues. Nicholas speaks of listening to Robert Johnson
as a teenager, and when he was 18, going to New York and seeing Howlin’ Wolf -- and hanging our with Wolf’s band for a
few weeks. This inevitably led to
Chicago,
where he
played
guitar
in Big Walter
Horton’s
band
for
two
years.
Eventually,
Nicholas
migrated
to
Austin
to play
in
the Western
Swing
band Asleep
at the Wheel.
For awhile,
he had
his
own
Austin
group,
Johnny
and
The
Ethnic
Lovers,
and
he
made
frequent
trips
to
South Louisiana
to sit
in
with
the
Cajun bandleader
Nathan
Abshire.
After
the
Hill
Top was
up
and
running, and
he and Brenda
had
three
sons,
he
pretty
much
retired
from
the music
business,
except
for recording occasionally,
and
playing
some
East Coast
summer
gigs
and
European
festivals.
His
primary
musical
outlet
these
days
is
playing
regularly
at
the
Hill
Top.
After lunch,
Nicholas
proudly
took
me
on
a
tour
through
the
spotless
kitchen,
and
directed
me
to
have
a piece of the
blackberry
pie
brought
in
that
morning
by
a
neighbor lady who
grew the
berries
in
her own yard.
I nobly
brought
a
corner
of
this
unbelievably
delicious
pastry
back
home
to my
wife
in Austin
so
she
would
believe
me when
I
raved
about it.
A week later, 1 returned for dinner. The menu is more extensive at night; appetizers included kefalotiri saganaki (baked Greek cheese with roasted garlic), Brenda’s blue crab cakes with beurre blanc sauce, spanakopetes (spinach
and fera cheese baked in phyllo pastry), and homemade seafood or pork boudin. I chose one of the house specialties, oysters Bruton, named in honor of Johnny’s great guitar pal, Stephen Bruton. The oysters are seasoned and then
pan-seared in a rich pepper sauce heavily laced with butter. I’m afraid I might have made unseemly slurping noises as I quickly dispatched this succulent dish. The entree choices
included pan-seared quail;
venison medallions with
portobello mushrooms; crab au gratin;
“The Greek’s
Special Tenderloin”
(tenderloin marinated in black pepper and garlic); roasted chicken served with jalapeno and cheddar cheese grits;
grilled pork chop stuffed with green onion, sausage, apples, and cherries; and
chicken-fried steak. The famous stuffed
flounder was all gone for
the evening, so I had the special: stuffed shrimp (filled with fresh crab), as
good as any on the Texas coast. All the while, Johnny was set up in the corner playing his elderly Rickenbacker guitar, singing Robert Johnson’s “Stones in My Passway,” Son House’s version of “John the Revelator,” and his own plaintive tune, “My Rice Ain’t Got No Gravy.” Some fans sitting close to the piano request a boogie-woogie, and Johnny happily obliges, and then picks out a mandolin tune before returning to the guitar. I ask about
the blackberry pie,
but it’s all gone, so I have
to settle for
some
cobbler made with Hill Country peaches.
As I walked
outside and looked
up at the stars,
I could hear Johnny singing another favorite, the mournful “Blue and Lonesome,” and I took pleasure in this wonderful food
and music, contained under the same roof, out in the country between Fredericksburg and Mason. For sheer unexpectedness, better
than this you cannot do. TO VIEW THE ARTICLE WITH PHOTOS CLICK HERE AND SEE PAGE 14 |
OPEN 6 DAYS A WEEK: Tuesday thru Sunday TUESDAY - THURSDAY FRIDAY & SATURDAY SUNDAY CLOSED ON MONDAY Reservations Call: 830-997-8922 HILL TOP CAFE
830-997-9242
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