A taste of Texas is coming to Downtown Brooklyn — again.
Hill Country Barbecue Market has been revamped from a Texas-style BBQ spot into a food hall with six different culinary concepts inspired by Austin’s food truck scene, dubbed Hill Country Food Park.
Husband-and-wife Marc and Kristen Glosserman, who run Hill Country Hospitality, decided to make over the four-year-old restaurant to cater to the Monday-through-Friday crowd in the neighborhood.
“When we were operating as a restaurant with a full-service menu and a bar and nightlife, we never were able to really kind of generate the dinner and late-night business in this location,” Marc said. “There was a bigger opportunity in building up the daytime business. Monday-Friday people, they’re looking for value, they’re looking for speed.”
At Hill Country Food Park, slated to open Monday at 345 Adams St., that means doing breakfast for the first time at any of the Hill Country Hospitality concepts, and closing at 8 p.m. The space will also offer new concepts, from breakfast tacos to pizza to burgers to salads, alongside outposts of Hill Country Barbecue Market and the Glossermans’ other restaurant, Hill Country Chicken.
The name Hill Country Food Park is an ode to Austin’s food truck scene.
“At least unofficially, where food trucks gather, people refer to them as food truck parks,” said Marc, a Washington, D.C., native whose parents are from Texas (“I grew up romanticizing all things Texas,” he said.).
Early next year, the location will also be a new home for Hank’s Saloon, a Boerum Hill dive bar that is closing at the end of this year. The bar, located on the second level, will have live music and late-night hours.
The Glossermans don’t plan to replicate their new food park concept at their other locations, but see it as a testing ground.
“This is going to be a bit of a laboratory for us from a menu development standpoint,” Marc said. “There may be things we do here that may find their way onto menus at our other restaurants.”
Marc, 44, walked us through the six different food concepts:
South Congress
Anyone familiar with Austin will recognize the city’s main drag in the name. Inspired by Austin’s coffee houses, the new stall will serve coffee from City of Saints, breakfast tacos, and doughnuts from Du’s Donuts, as well as ice cream from Van Leeuwen. “We knew we wanted to have a great coffee program, and we wanted to do breakfast tacos — that is just a quintessentially Austin thing,” Marc said.
Nickie’s
This new stall serves what Marc calls “Mex-Tex” — with a menu of tamales, tacos and nachos alongside burgers and loaded hot dogs. “It’s our spin on a taco and burger stand,” Marc said. Beverages include margaritas.
Austino’s
Another new concept for Hill Country is this pizza stall. “We’re doing a mashup between pizza along with some of the things we’re known for — using smoked meats as toppings,” Marc said. “It’s a rectangular pie, and we got some really fun and innovative toppings and pizzas that we’re doing there.” Pies include El Original, with brisket, mozzarella, green onion, pickle and jalapeño, and the Skye Pie, with Kreuz Market sausage, cipollini onion, roasted red peppers, mozzarella and red sauce.
Bluebonnets
This new stall — whose name is an ode to Texas’ state flower — will offer up some vegetarian options, from salads to sandwiches, alongside other farm-to-table fare. “We knew we wanted to do something driven by fresh local produce,” Marc said. “That’s going to be our lighter fare in the Food Park.”
Hill Country Chicken
This outpost will feature the “greatest hits of our Hill Country Chicken menu” in Manhattan, Marc said. That means chicken tenders, chicken and waffles and a variety of chicken sandwiches.
Hill Country Barbecue Market
Rounding out the offerings is a barbecue outpost, serving the restaurant’s signature smoked brisket, Marc said, alongside baby back ribs, Kreuz Market sausages, house-smoked chicken wings, and more.
