Former Dot's Place owner Dorothy Hewitt died Saturday night. She was 71.
If you never had the opportunity to eat at Dot's when it was located on W. Orchid Ln. in far north Austin, you missed out. Regular servings of Dot's beef tips and rice made having to work in the awful industrial office hinterlands at the intersection of Kramer and Braker almost bearable.
Dot's was housed in a run-down edifice that looked like it had been crudely added on to one too many times. The dining rooms were spartan and cooled by overworked window units, but the meatloaf, mashed potatoes and greens made up for that. In 2005, the restaurant burned to the ground. The ever-resourceful Dot set up a trailer on the site of the burned-out restaurant years before such things became de rigueur on South Congress.
The last time I ate at Dot's was at this aforementioned trailer in November 2005. My pal Kevin Fullerton was visiting from Seattle and his luggage had been stolen out of my car the night before while we were watching the Diamond Smugglers at the Continental Club. After filing a futile police report for insurance purposes, lunch at Dot's did plenty to restore our faith in humanity.
Monday, November 22, 2010
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3 comments:
You could really feel the love when you ate at Dot's. I found her very inspirational. She cooked the highest quality meal that she could for the most reasonable price she could charge and she did it out of the goodness of her heart. Her passion was blessing as many people as she could with her delicious homestyle meals. The love and strength that she showed us with her delicious food and her perseverance after her restaurant burned, were so beautiful.
Did you ever eat at Flo's in East Austin? From how I've heard Dot's described, Flo's was basically the identical twin of Dot's. Same awesome food, same kind of hospitable little-old-lady owner. No idea what happened to it. I guess it just faded away, like too many funky cool East Austin businesses do.
Having lived here for 26 years and tried many places old and new, remodeled or not, no place holds a candle to Dot's Place. No offense to other southern comfort places, Dot's was the epitome of yum. Not a bad dish on the menu.
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