Update: Wee’s Cozy Kitchen moving into Royal Blue Grocery in downtown Austin
We told you at the beginning of the year that popular Wee's Cozy Kitchen had closed in its gas station home near the UT campus. But, as promised, it was just the end of a chapter, not the closing of the book on the Malaysian cafe from Wee Fong Ehlers that landed a spot in the American-Statesman's list of Best New Restaurants in 2023.
Less than two months after Ehlers closed her small counter-service restaurant, Royal Blue Grocery owner George Scariano tells the American-Statesman that the beloved cook will reopen Wee's Cozy Kitchen inside the boutique market at 609 Congress Ave. The cafe, serving Ehlers' Malaysian specialties like beef rendang, is set to open on March 4, just in time for South by Southwest.
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The new location, which takes over the kitchen Royal Blue used as a taco and research-and-development kitchen for 12 years, will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a greatly expanded menu focused on Ehlers’ traditional Malaysian dishes.
“Wee’s endearing persona plus a deep selection of Malaysian home cooking will be an irresistible combo, all in the heart of downtown,” Scariano said. “Wee can’t wait to serve a wide variety of new dishes to her many existing fans and make so many more.”
Scariano said he knew of Ehlers’ reputation, bolstered by fawning praise in the New York Times last year, and was shocked when she lost her space near campus. Royal Blue moved its taco and R&D kitchen to a new commissary space earlier in the year, creating a vacancy that Wee’s quickly filled.
“She feels there is a kismet at work to place her in our kitchen. As I’m an old restaurant guy, I can see her potential, and hopefully set the plate for a compelling relaunch,” Scariano said. “I feel very fortunate that that opportunity collided with Wee’s search for a new home.”
Wee's Cozy Kitchen originated in a UT campus-area gas station
Ehlers had originally operated the food counter inside a Shell gas station in West Campus, serving Chinese-American classics and bar food staples like burgers and wings, for about six months before she decided in summer 2022 to start mixing in dishes from her native Malaysia. They proved to be a major hit with students and food obsessives thanks to their depth of flavor and the home-cooked comfort they inspire.
Her tender beef rendang that falls apart at the touch of a fork brims with ginger and chilies, a faint sweetness of coconut lingering in the back end; that dish, like the chicken nasi lemak, comes with coconut rice, crispy fried anchovies, cucumbers and toasted nuts for added complexity and crunch. And Ehlers might be the only person who could have ever made me comfortable eating curry soup with scallops and shrimp in a gas station.
Ehlers cooked at Castilian for 11 years and had been working at the Jester residence hall at UT for the last three while also running Wee's. I wrote last year that those days were likely numbered.
It turns out that was true. The Malaysian native is now turning her full attention to Wee’s Cozy Kitchen in its new home.
“It’s her destiny, and she’s willing it into existence,” Scariano said. “I’m just gonna get out of the way but help in every way possible.”
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This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Wee’s Cozy Kitchen moving into Royal Blue Grocery downtown
