This French Bistro Couldn't Exist Anywhere Else But Austin, Texas

Eater

4 days ago

Underdog, a buzzy Korean American wine bar and bottleshop in Bouldin Creek, was a beloved part of the Austin dining scene before its closing in March. But married couple Claudia Lee and Richard Hargreave had other plans for the space. Now, in its place, a new neighborhood restaurant is taking shape.
Le Calamar, a French bistro reimagined through a Texas lens, opened on Thursday, May 29, offering a menu that's rooted in classic French cooking techniques and driven by Gulf seafood, Texan produce, and global spices. Leading the kitchen is chef Casey Wall, a North Carolina native who's spent the last decade making waves in the culinary scene. He's worked in kitchens around the world, including New York's Le Cirque and the Spotted Pig under the tutelage of chef April Bloomfield, and, most recently, Australia, where he opened his first restaurant, the now-closed Rockwell and Sons in Melbourne and worked at Bar Liberty and Above Board, which was named one of the World's 50 Best Bars. After 15 years living in Australia and forging a friendship with Hargreave for almost as long, Wall decided to move back to the States. Hargreave pitched Wall on opening a new restaurant with him in Texas, and, following five visits to Austin within 18 months, Wall made the decision to move. 'I just fell in love with this city, what a lot of the chefs are doing here, the produce, the approach to food, and I want to throw my hat in the ring and celebrate that,' Wall says.
The timeline to opening Le Calamar has been tight. Hargreave and Wall began talking about collaborating in 2024 and decided on a theme for the restaurant just before the New Year. Underdog closed in March, and Wall moved to Austin just a month later. 'Underdog was a great space and viable, and it was a good restaurant, but it was not something I could execute from my skillset,' Wall says, noting that Underdog was synonymous with Korean American cuisine. After operating the restaurant for a little over a year, both Lee and Hargreave decided that the wine bar 'revealed its true potential as a neighborhood restaurant': 'We knew we needed to wait for the right creative partner to execute the vision,' Lee said in a statement, and after finding Wall, Lee and Hargreave moved forward with the idea but as a full-service restaurant.
The team made a 'clean break,' implementing new critereon: French cooking techniques serve as a base, spices are sourced from around the world, seafood procured mostly from dayboat catches from the Gulf, and produce and meat sourced from around Texas to create what Hargreave calls a 'living, breathing menu' with around half of its dishes based on 'whatever's available and whatever we're into right now.'
'It's kind of like if Texas were a region of France, or if a French chef moved here before modern society [made everything accessible],' Wall says. Now, the only remaining nod to Underdog is Le Calamar's name, the French word for 'squid,' which is an allusion to Hargreave's dog (Squid also served as the mascot for Underdog).
Dishes at Le Calamar include steaks cooked over charcoal; oysters Charentaise paired with homemade Texas hot links; grilled trout made with an almondine sauce fused with salsa macha; Carolina Gold rice with Gulf shrimp and blue crab; and a Lone Star State take on Baked Alaska, appropriately called Baked Texas, that incorporates pecan, banana, and local honey. Le Calamar plans to eventually roll out lunch, what Hargreave says is a more streamlined version of dinner: think a classic French dip sandwich inspired by some of the team's favorite birria spots.
The beverages aim to be just as dynamic, focusing on this Texas French bistro theme. Hargreave uses his sommelier chops to curate Le Calamar's wine list, highlighting varieties from small, independent wineries and growers from France, Mexico, and Texas, many of whom are focused on sustainable practices. A majority of the spirits, he says, come exclusively from Mexico and Texas, with a few from France.
Though rooted in French bistro tradition, the space is meant to be versatile and just as well equipped for a multi-course meal as it is for a glass of wine with oysters, Wall explains. The 3,000-square-foot restaurant, which features an intimate dining room and 12-seat bar, has undergone a complete revamp. 'It's more transportive than Underdog,' Hargreave says, noting the transformation of the previously brightly lit space. Inspired by Spaghetti Western movies of the early 1960s, local designer Bruce Curtis of Kissmyart reimagined Le Calamar as dark and moody, with glossy olive walls, stained concrete floors, and a cinematic effect set to a Western-inspired instrumental-only soundtrack. 'It feels very Texan without the 'yeehaw' and longhorns,' says Wall. 'It's familiar, but it's our interpretation of what a Texan restaurant could be.'
The restaurant's specific parameters have actually allowed Le Calamar's team more freedom, Wall says. Working with farmers for produce has encouraged them to get inventive with what's available during the season. Working largely with Texan and Mexican businesses for beverages, rather than big brands, helps give voice to smaller distilleries and allows Texas wineries to buy more grapes and take more risks, Hargreave says. Take Le Calamar's nocino, for example — a liqueur traditionally made with green walnuts is reimagined with green pecans for a sip that Hargreave says 'tastes like Texas.'
Wall says the approach to Le Calamar has stimulated his 'mental pantry,' a growing knowledge of seasonal produce and a playbook for how to use it. In many ways, Wall says it's a French bistro that could only exist in Texas. 'I think it's going to be a lot of fun,' he says. Trout almondine
Le Calamar's preparation of trout almondine, a French classic, best exemplifies the restaurant's approach to food, Wall says. While almondine typically combines brown butter, almonds, parsley, and lemon, Wall makes it a point to make it very Texan, using whatever fish is sourced by dayboats in the Gulf (one day it might be mutton snapper, another day it might be yelloweye snapper), and transforming the almondine into a sauce that incorporates local flavors. Wall clarifies brown butter as the base, then uses a Mexican-style salsa matcha with guajillo chiles, almonds, and cacao nibs for added depth, plus a spike of sherry vinegar. Lemon helps round out the butter-based salsa macha, which is poured over the grilled piece of fish. 'It eats familiar, like almondine and salsa macha, but it's neither,' he says. The chicken wing a la Koffman
For many restaurants, chicken wings are some of the easiest items on the menu. Not at Le Calamar. The dish is deceptively simple: Inspired by French chef Pierre Koffman's pig trotter-stuffed chicken mousseline at La Tante Claire in England, Wall debones chicken wings and pipes them with a mousseline made first from a combination of chicken, cream, and egg white, that's later mixed with sweetbreads, onion, and huitlacoche, a corn fungus commonly used in Mexico. Wall then steams the chicken wings in the oven and grills the outer skin with chicken jus, creating a sticky, caramelized exterior. Oysters Charentaise featuring Texas hot links
Le Calamar serves a simple and classic French preparation of oyster, pairing ice-cold oysters with hot and spicy sausage. 'It's a play on hot and cold, but also on fatty sausage and that clean, oyster brininess,' he says. The Le Calamar team takes a homemade Texas hotlink, first smoking them on a grill and crisping them over the charcoal before serving them alongside an assortment of raw oysters. That and a glass of wine should be enough to beckon diners in, Wall says, and is an accurate snapshot of what he and Hargreave envision Le Calamar to be. 'We just want it to be that whole gamut of what a restaurant can be, and that dish is really fun,' Wall says. Rissole
A classic French bistro dessert gets a Southern touch at Le Calamar. Similar to rice pudding, Wall folds whipped creme fraiche into Harvest Grain Mills rice from Anauhac, Texas (his substitute for his favorite Charleston Gold Rice) to create a light base. He uses local plums to create a preserve, then tops the rissole with crushed pistachios. 'I can see that one lingering on the menu for a while,' Wall says. 'It's a fun little dessert, and very simple.' Baked Texas
This Texas spin on the popular dessert, Baked Alaska, uses a pecan dacquoise base made from pecans from Chase Pecan Farm in San Saba, Texas. That's then topped with two domes — the inner dome, honey semifreddo made with honey from Keeper's Harvest in Buda, Texas, and the larger dome, an olive oil parfait made with olive oil from Texas Olive Ranch in Carrizo Springs.
Le Calamar is open for dinner from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays and Mondays, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursdays, and from 4 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Daily happy, featuring $10 martinis, $3 St. Elmo Carl's, and a menu of bar snacks and drink specials, is held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.; its late-night happy hour is held from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursdays, and 10 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
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