Knotty Deck competing in Austin Mac & Cheese Fest

We're bringing some serious comfort food to the studio this morning. Knotty Deck Kitchen and Bar is serving up its award-winning brisket mac and cheese, a dish that's already taken home the Austin Mac and Cheese Championship belt. Now they're hoping to win it back at this year's festival that's coming up next weekend. Here to show us how it's made and to give us a good preview, we have the executive chef, Kent, and general manager, Rob. Good morning, you guys. Good morning. Thank you for coming. I guess I selected your brisket last year because I was a judge, so you won. Yeah. I can't even remember all the things I ate last year because there's so many, but you're award-winning. Tell us a little bit about your dish as a whole. So our cheese sauce is made with four cheeses, all local, then we smoke those four cheeses. Oh my gosh. And we put them in this hollowed out wheel of Parmesan. We have a mesquite smoked brisket. We smoke these for approximately 12 to 16 hours. Wow. Okay. Wait, this is a big block of cheese? It's cheese within cheese. It is cheese within cheese. Yeah. Okay, so I already think I know why you won, you have four beautiful cheeses. But if people aren't familiar with this restaurant, can you tell us about it? Yeah, sure, our hotel is the current hotel of the year for Austin. So we're really honored by that distinction. Congratulations. It's such an amazing culinary city, and we feel our hotel is a foodie hotel. And so our restaurant, Knotty Deck Kitchen and Bar, OpenTable just named our patio. Best outdoor patio in Austin and so we love food, love playing with food, we love what we get to do. What Chef has the benefit of is we have a smoker, he can do 60 brisket at one time. So pretty wild, but we do bacon, chicken or brisket in our mac and cheese, we sell thousands of it. Every year we look forward to this coming week with the Mac and Cheese Festival. It's an amazing time to see a little bit of competition, but really enjoying amazing creativity. There's always a theme every year. This this year is camping theme. Yes. And we have some surprises that we will be showing at Star Hill Ranch next Sunday. Really encourage the community to come out. I've been in Austin for many years. I've been the GM here 20 years. It's one of the greatest food festivals and fun events. Fall weather, who doesn't love mac and cheese? I honestly love it and I will be back again to judge this year, no pressure. I'm just kidding. But I will be there, but it's one of my favorite festivals to come and be a part of because it's just delicious and it brings Austin together and it's yummy. Okay, so you have put the cheese within the cheese in the noodles. And it's there. What now, where do we go? So we're gonna bowl it up. Okay. Let you get a taste of it, put some brisket on there. Yum. Leslie, do you like mac and cheese? I do like mac and cheese. Okay, good. It's yummy. Makes the weather good. Yes, right? I mean, like, this is mac and cheese weather for sure. Yes, mac and cheese weather, soup weather, all kinds of stuff. If people want to come join you guys at the restaurant, can people just show up? Do they need to make a reservation? No, they can show up or they can make a reservation through Open Table. Okay, well... Parking is complimentary for those that come in and dine. We love that. We have an amazing bar, great bartenders. Amazing culinarians, though. Chef Kent last week just celebrated 30 years at our hotel. Congrats. Started as a cook and had seven promotions. He's been our executive chef the last several years. I know. But he, like many at our hotel, we just love what we get to do. And food, you know, nothing better than that. I guess I'll try it. No pressure. No pressure. Gosh. Okay, and then can you tell people a little bit about how they can get tickets to the Mac and Cheese Fest to come taste? Yeah, I would definitely encourage you to get tickets in advance. It's always really well attended, whether it's a hot Sunday afternoon or a sweatshirt weather, there is a website for that, the Mac and Cheese Festival, Hayden who heads that up for Austin. It's really remarkable. It's great people watching, great sponsors that are there, beverage partners, so it's a lot of fun. I'm going to try to like... Keep this to memory this time. Now, you know, the brisket is so good and our chefs do such an amazing job. We probably sell this year. We've probably sold 5000 brisket nachos. So wow. Everyone likes to go out and check out the food scene in Austin when they arrive to the hotel. But in our case, people love to share appetizers. The brisket nachos is another example, like mac and cheese. We love. Comfort Foods, and we love supporting local farms, local distilleries, and this and that. This is good. Good. And you can get a ticket as you go up to the event next week, next Sunday afternoon at Star Hill Ranch. So you don't have to get one in advance, but I'd definitely encourage you to do so. I would if I were you. Well, guys, anything else about the restaurant or Mac and Cheese Fest in general? I would just say as we are into November already, hard to believe, our hotel is pretty famous for Texas-sized holiday celebrations. And whether you want to come with your families, get your picture in the 14-foot Santa chair, the 25-foot ornaments, we're on almost 10 acres. We have close to 100 Christmas trees there. So come for hot chocolate, come for a hot toddy, Come for mac and cheese, it's just a place we're proud to live in Austin, do life here. Our hotel just celebrated 40 years and we love to support the community and love to have people come check us out. My gosh, yeah, if the food is just as good as this, I'll be back. It will be delicious. Come sit on the deck and enjoy the views and So good. Have some good food. This is yummy. I can see why you guys are like the reigning champs. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Of course. Good luck. I'll see you next weekend. If you guys want to go check out the restaurant, you can do that as well. But stay with us. We will be right back here on Good Day Austin.