Birdie's

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

What Birdie's Is

Birdie's calls itself "fine-casual," and the label earns its keep. You line up at the counter to order, the room is unfussy, and yet the sourcing, the cooking, and the wine list operate at the level of a serious restaurant. The result is a five-course prix-fixe dinner for $79 per person — seasonal American food drawn from the cooking traditions of France and Italy — served in a converted 1949 corner building at 12th and Harvey in East Austin that has, over the decades, been a grocery store, a laundromat, a barbecue joint, and a pair of Mexican restaurants. The building's owners, Arthur and Joyce Anderson, have anchored the neighborhood since 1991 through their Grace Fellowship Baptist Church next door, and Birdie's is proud to be part of that same fabric.

The People Behind It

Chef and co-owner Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel grew up outside Houston and spent summers on her grandparents' goat and sheep ranch in West Texas before her cooking career took her to Spain, Chicago's Lula Café, the Culinary Institute of America, and then New York — where she worked at Cru, Del Posto, Blue Hill, and Danny Meyer's Gramercy Tavern under James Beard Outstanding Chef winner Mike Anthony. She was a 2024 James Beard Foundation Finalist for Best Chef Texas. Her food has been celebrated in the pages of Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Esquire, and the New York Times.

Her husband and co-owner Arjav Ezekiel runs the beverage program. Born in New Delhi and raised in Portland, Oregon, he built his career at Washington D.C.'s Komi and later at Gramercy Tavern. Esquire named him Sommelier of the Year in 2022, and he won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service in 2025. The wine list he curates — recognized with Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence — is a thoughtful mix of classic and emerging producers, weighted toward mindful farming and minimal intervention in the cellar, and it shifts with the season and what Tracy is cooking.

The kitchen is further supported by Executive Sous Chef Heejae Galluccio, a CIA graduate who cooked at Aureole and Gramercy Tavern before joining the Birdie's opening team, and Sous Chef Philip Faunce. Lead Sommelier Justin Muñiz and Service Director Leo-Charles Salerno round out a team that, by design, is treated unusually well.

The Philosophy

Counter service at Birdie's is a deliberate choice, not a shortcut. The leaner labor model lets the restaurant run a flat tip pool — every team member shares equally, whether they work the counter, the dish station, or the dining room. Beyond that, the restaurant adds a 3.5% health and wellness fee to every check to fund health insurance, subsidized therapy, four weeks of paid vacation, and paid parental leave. Ingredient sourcing follows the same logic: nearly all meat, dairy, eggs, and produce come from local farmers, and the restaurant is transparent about what that costs — finishing olive oils at $30–$50 a bottle, premium vanilla at $100 a jar.

Coming for Dinner

The menu rotates monthly and runs to about five courses. Vegetarians and pescatarians are always accommodated; the kitchen can also work around gluten, dairy, nut, and shellfish allergies. Only five reservations are released each night via OpenTable — everything else is walk-in, first come, first served. A kids' menu is available, leashed dogs are welcome on the back patio, and if there's a line out front, wine is on offer while you wait. Plan on 90 to 100 minutes once you sit down.