Getting Cheesy in ATX

There's no better way to spend an incredible sunshine-filled Sunday afternoon in Mid-November in Austin, Texas, than sampling the ultimate comfort food brimming with cheesy goodness at the 8th Annual Austin Mac and Grilled Cheese Festival.

This year's Mardi Gras themed fest was held on a picture perfect November 17, 2024, at the beautiful Star Hill Ranch, a recreated pioneer town, located just outside of Austin in Bee Cave, Texas. This venue is popular as a wedding venue, but some of you might know it as the shooting location for the popular Food Network show, "Barbeque Brawl." This venue was definitely a step up from some past locations and made for an excellent setting for a fun food fest.

The 2024 version of the Austin Mac and Grilled Cheese Fest found hundreds of Central Texas foodies indulging in bites of mouth-watering, creative takes on mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and even sweet treats from 20+ local chefs, eateries, and caterers.

The Austin Mac and Grilled Cheese Fest was sponsored by Austin Food Magazine and the Austin Bergstrom International Airport.

This year's vendors included:

The Original Black's BBQ

Delaware North (an ABIA "Beats, Bites, and Flights" concession program)

Huckleberry

Moonshine Grill

Uptown Sports Club

Industry Austin

Austin's Rotisserie

Schulze's Pit Room (Seguin, TX)

Parish BBQ

MAC'S Macaroni and Cheese Shop

The Victory Tap (Pflugerville, TX)

Knotty Deck

The Vegan Nom

TLC Austin

Rollin Smoke BBQ

Pig Pen BBQ (Dripping Springs, TX)

Southern Steer Butchers (Lakeway, TX)

Kurty's Cookies

Handels's Homemade Ice Cream

Rogues Over The Top Pierogi

The Pretty Farmer

Antonelli's Cheese (VIP)

Auguste Escoffier Culinary School (VIP)

Folie Pops by Chef Kevin D'Andrea (VIP)

While everyone we spoke to at this "cheesy" fest stated the fact that there were no bad choices, sadly Limelight Imaging missed out on a couple of the samples (You have no idea how quickly a person can fill up on bites of pasta and cheese), but we can definitely tell you our top choices were from Black's BBQ and Pig Pen BBQ.

Black's BBQ offered up a "Flamin Blazin Brisket Mac" which consisted of a creamy truffle mac and cheese with Black's famous brisket, topped with crushed flaming hot Cheetos, served with dill pickle slices. To add some pizzazz to this sample, 4th generation pitmaster Barrett Black was on hand to put the finishing touch of a bourbon flame mist to each individual sample. We knew this would be an excellent bite, and it was. The panel of judges agreed with us, as Black's took home the Judges Choice Award.

Not to be outdone in the taste department, Pig Pen BBQ offered up an excellent four cheese mac and cheese with brisket mixed in and another lovely slice of brisket as a topper. This sample may not have included flames, but in our opinion, this bite had the best tasting mac and cheese and scrumptious brisket, to boot. You know we love us some brisket.

The People's Choice Award went to Delaware North, an Austin Bergstrom Airport "Beats, Bites, and Flights" concession program. Their French Quarter Boudin Balls was packed with braised pork and smothered in cheddar cheese sauce. Somehow this was one of the samples we didn't get a chance to taste.

Other notable contributions to the fare included:

Huckleberry Hospitality Blue Crab Grilled Cheese

Industry Austin Mac and Cheese with Chicharrones

Moonshine Grill

The Vegan Nom Vegan Mac and Cheese Taco

Austin Rotisserie provided a touch of their French comfort food with mac and cheese using Raclette cheese and a flambe finish served with a French baguette crostini and apricot jam.

For the sweet treats, we fell in love with Folie Pops by Chef Kevin D'Andrea. The sweet tartelettes of shortbread topped with a creamy filling and chocolate were the perfect accompaniment for all of the cheesy items at the fest. It's no surprise that these treats were incredible since Chef D'Andrea was a finalist on Top Chef France in 2015. Our minds were so blown we forgot to take a photo of this treat.

Handel's Homemade Ice Cream was a wonderful and welcome treat since Austin was experiencing a nice warm 80 degree Fall day.