Building Hudson’s on the Bend
After the Broadway Oyster Co. closed we quickly moved from San Antonio to Austin, moving hastily attempting to getting the bad taste of failure in the form of a closed restaurant out of our mouth. The failure of Broadway Oyster Co. was particularly dramatic for me because I knew if we stuck it out we would have eventually become a successful restaurant. I just did not feel as though I had the luxury of living in the red for the amount of time that was necessary to realize that money making dream. I have been called tenacious all of my life and I really have to be completely backed into a corner before I will give up as I just do not like giving up. It’s important when restaurant is underfunded to have a talent for thinking outside of the box as the lack of moolah forces you to be extra creative.
I need to give a “shout out” to my father and mother who lent me money for all project initiations throughout the years and the three restaurants I opened. Our credit rating with them remained intact through all three restaurants, and my eternal gratitude goes to George and Dorothy Blank. They did get much easier to approach for a loan after we exhibited that we honored our debts and we repaid them with interest for our first restaurant in Aspen, the Wineskin.
The house that became Hudson’s on the Bend had many lives prior to our ownership and had served many people well even before we invited one and all to dinner at our little restaurant. The house was first built as a fish camp in 1930 by a fellow that put in a pond and raised minnows and sold a variety of fish bait. Fifty-five years later, I repurposed the pond by filling it with dirt and starting my own herb garden, my foundation for the “eat less from a box and more from the earth” movement. The second owner was Orin and Bernadette McBride. They converted the garage into what we now know as the fireplace room and added a carport on to the house and raised their family in the home until they sold the house to George and Rebecca Rakin. Rebecca taught ballet classes to the Lake Travis children in the fireplace room. The Rakin’s sold the property to my father in 1985 who in turn sold the property to me once I was running a restaurant that was in the black. So, the property purchase was my contribution to the life of Hudson’s on the Bend. At this time, Ranch Road 620 was a two-lane pot holed asphalt road that led to Mansfield Dam. The dam was built in 1937. It was a lonely road, no grocery stores, two gas stations, maybe three restaurants and there was Lakeway which was in its early days.
Owning the property was the smartest part of our plan as it gave the restaurant real value. The total investment including the real estate, septic and restaurant was less than $400,000. Just try and do that today without adding another ‘0’ to the total cost, impossible.
Gert’s contribution to the business was that he got a loan for our operating capital from Bill Milburn, a well-known home builder in the Austin area in the ‘80s. Big Bill played football for Green Bay during the Lombardi era. He was a regular customer at Gert’s restaurant, the Courtyard Restaurant and he liked everything German, enter Gert.
We converted the open-air carport into the kitchen. The Courtyard Restaurant was buying new chairs so Hudson’s got custody of the old ones. We purchased all used but refurbished equipment, like I said earlier, all was done on a shoestring.
While we were busy with the construction phase my parents were busy updating the landscaping. Most of the new plants were donated from their next-door neighbors, Darrell and Darrell Kirkland who had a need to thin out their landscaping. Yes, Darrell and Darrell are male and female. The Kirkland’s had a black lab named Fred that my mother doted on. Darrell would dress up Fred just to amuse my mother. Mother had a framed picture of Fred wearing a white long tie. Darrell and Darrell had a party one night and left the buffet food out with the intention of cleaning up after the party mess the next day. They were awakened early that morning by a strong methane gas smell, thinking they had a gas leak they called the fire department. As they awaited the fired department they moved about the house very thoughtfully and carefully so as not to cause a spark that would ignite the leaking gas. As they tip toed out of the bedroom and into the kitchen they passed an embarrassed and guilty Fred who had eaten the rich goose liver pate that was left out on the buffet the night before. The pate passed through Fred quickly and was the source of the methane odor. You can all relate, poor Fred he was just having a late-night snack.
I worked at Gert’s restaurant, the Courtyard while Hudson’s was being created. I was originally hired by Gert to be a waiter, but after the smoke cleared and the maître’d was consulted, they did not have a waiter spot for me and l was a busboy. What a humbling experience. As it turned out it was the perfect experience that I needed in order to truly understand the ins and outs from the front to the back and the top to the bottom of owning and running a restaurant. It re affirmed what I knew about Gert from the past, if you wanted Gert’s decision to be in your favor make sure you were the last person to talk with him. He tended to tell you what you wanted to hear and just wanted to please whomever was in his face at the moment.
Heber Stone was the head bartender at the Wineskin in Aspen and he followed the work path with Gert from Aspen to Woodcreek Resort in Wimberly, Texas. Heber became Gert’s partner at the Courtyard Restaurant in Austin and was also a partner of Hudson’s. There are stories about the Courtyard’s creation but I wasn’t there so its only stories to me. I heard tell a tale about a big truck being backed up to the loading dock at Woodcreek Resort in the dark of the night in order to furnish the upcoming Courtyard, but don’t quote me on that. Eventually I bought Heber’s partnership portion out, it took a few years after we opened. One very valuable piece of business advice I adhered to and shall pass along, when buying a partner out wait until they need cash. Heber was married to Karen Dickiehut. Karen’s dad, Herb Dickiehut, was part of a big construction firm that did a lot of highway type work so he had the big earth movers that we needed to build the septic drain field and the parking lot. He did most of the work and we never got a bill.
Joe Spillman was our licensed septic installer and he worked closely with Herb to insure everything was within code. Joe was a Texas Hill Country good old boy with a slow thick Texas country accent and with that drawl, he was always recognized on the phone before he announced himself. I’ll never forget standing with Joe and looking over one of our septic tanks as waste began to pour in. Joe turned to me as we watched and said, “Jeff, it maybe shit to you, but it’s bread and butter to me”. That made perfect simple sense. The septic drain field was the cause of several months of delay as we were building during an unusually wet spring. One of our drain fields was lined with a thick plastic liner that held the rain perfectly. I spent weeks pumping the rainwater out, but the pump was constantly getting clogged as the water level was going down. It rained every night and thus it was a never-ending battle. I thought I had found the solution when I found a pump mounted in an inner tube and I was feeling very pleased and a bit overconfident but all went well until the pump and tube lowered to the uneven bottom and the red-hot muffler on the pump exploded the rubber inner tube and the mud clogged the pump again. Back to the drawing board, or perhaps time to pray to the rain gods to vamoose. It was months before my prayers were answered and I was able to get it dry enough to allow the work to progress.
Jack Corbin was our general contractor for the restaurant remodel and he somehow kept construction on track.
We were years ahead of the farm to table craze before the phrase or practice were ever even verbalized. We were farm to table without knowing its future and the impact it would have on the restaurant industry so many years later. Our concept was to cook what was in the backyard and to keep with our Texan theme, we used wood fire and smoke to compliment the wild game flavors. To do this we had to buy everything from the fire wood to the wild game to the veggies to the cheeses to honey all from locals. I was a regular at the Tony Berger Center Farmer’s Market every Saturday morning to ferret out product and connections.
Hudson’s was a magical combination of things that Texans love, smoke, fire, sweet and spicy. We started with a classic double oil barrel smoker but due to our smoky menu, we burned a hole in the base of the smoker rather quickly and this inspired us to build the permanent stone smoke house that still stands and smokes to this day. Smoke houses are basic. We hung metal wire shelves on one side of the house and the fire was built daily on the opposite side of the house. We learned the art of smoking by trial and error. We had four shelves and the Texas saying “low and slow is the way to go” made perfect sense because we quickly learned that the lower shelf was the coolest as heat rises, so for a slow smoke, load in the meat on the lowest shelf. We quickly learned that smoke extends the holding life of our food but convincing the health department of that fell on deaf ears. Over the years we used many wood flavors; pecan wood was the work horse but we also used apple wood, cherry wood, grapevines and many others. The woods that we learned to stay away from because they are too strong are cedar, juniper and mesquite. Mesquite is fine to grill with, but too strong for smoking. Our routine was to smoke to a rare/medium rare, put it in our cooler and reheat to serving temperature over our indoor wood fire.
Our menu was hand written daily on the blackboard. This was all before computers, fax machines, copiers, etc.
Below you will find a smoked shrimp quesadilla recipe with avocado and goat cheese.
When we smoke any seafood, we cover it with seasoned sour cream or plain yogurt. This locks in the moisture and attracts the smoke. When smoking seafood be watchful because it smokes quickly. Use your favorite flavored spice mix to flavor the sour cream or yogurt like Lawry’s or Old Bay.
We were doing a BBC show featuring this quesadilla and while preparing the avocado, I flicked a piece of the avocado 🥑 onto one of their 1000-watt bulbs which caused a big bulb explosion. Glass went everywhere, what a mess, ah show biz.
Ingredients
4 flour tortillas
1 avocado, cut into 12 slices
12 shrimp, lightly smoked, 21 to 25 per lbs.
4 ounces of goat cheese
¼ cup grated Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoon minced garlic
2 tablespoon sour cream
¼ teaspoon each of dried basil, oregano, thyme & tarragon
2 tablespoon of virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of sea salt
Method
Mix goat cheese, jack cheese, sour cream, all herbs, salt, minced garlic and cayenne.
Place the cheese/herb mixture in a bowl over simmering water to aid in blending.
When blended slather the cheese/herb mix on each tortilla.
Place 3 avocado slices and 3 smoked shrimp on the lower half of the tortilla.
Fold the tortilla in half.
Over medium heat place olive oil in a large sauté pan and heat.
When hot place the folded tortillas in the pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.
Slice into 3 wedges and serve.
Top it with your favorite salsa.
You just made a deluxe south of the boarder cheese sandwich.