05-02-2025
Desert Island Dish with Jeremiah Macias
As part of our running feature about favorite meals from folks who work in the Austin restaurant industry, we recently caught up with Jeremiah Macias, the bar manager and beverage director of the Texas Saké Company on St. Elmo.
Background: Macias was born in El Paso but has lived in Austin for most of his life, graduating from Vandegrift High School.
He started work in the food industry as a food runner at a movie theater.
Dig in: Texas Saké not only serves saké, a rice-based alcoholic beverage, it brews it as well.
One of their specialties is a nigori ginjo, "an aromatic concoction of honeydew and coconut, with a soft mango finish," per the brewery.
You can also grab food from Texas Sushiko at Texas Saké.
You're marooned on a desert island. If you could have one dish, what would it be?
JM:"I'd do the Sushiko spam roll. Being a Hawaiian delicacy, it immediately comes to mind for island food. You're taking a can of spam and elevating it with spices and making it into a sushi roll."
What about dessert?
JM: "I tend not to go for sweets too much. But I recently tried the matcha tres leches at Tare. Coming from my Hispanic roots and putting that flair with the matcha, it was just super tasty and great."
What are you having to drink on your desert island?
JM:"I would definitely bring a lychee mai tai, with a saké flavor to it. It's got a creaminess to it. I use fresh lychees and lychee juice, with our unfiltered sake we brew in-house. It definitely has that island vibe."
