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’Tinis & ‘Tizers was a recent dinner party collaboration in South Austin for some Austin musician friends and featured a gluten free menu prepared with Tito’s Handmade Vodka. We teamed up with our talented friend Wendy Jo, aka The Fuelin’ Roadie and owner of Edible Nutrition to come up with the menu. Wendy Jo is a sports dietitian, culinary nutritionist, international speaker and author who has a passion for investigating the connection between nutrition & musicians, from sleep deprivation to spinal & repetitive play injuries and of course, the challenges of eating on the road.

She was assisted by Allison Stevens, chef/dietitian & owner of PrepDish.com. Brian Floyd, also a friend of ours over the years and founder of The Barman’s Fund came up with the perfect Tito’s Handmade Vodka cocktail recipes to pair with Wendy’s dinner menu. Our guests were made up of our mutual Austin musician friends like:

• Kevin Fowler
• Gary Braun of Micky & the Motorcars
• Jon “Chops” Richardson of Randy Rogers Band & his own band Johnny Chops & The Razors
• Bart Crow
• Wes McNew…one of the best roadies & managers & friends around!
• Chris McCoy engineer for Randy Rogers Band
• Katy Herpin…roadie, mom of many musicians, and tour manager
• And with the guys of Reckless Kelly on the road some of their lovely spouses were there to represent.

Wendy started us out with some pancetta dates and to go with this delight, Floyd created a champagne and Tito’s Handmade Vodka cocktail. To make this drink we poured about 3/4 oz of Tito’s into a champagne glass, added 3/4 oz of Pellegrino Sparkling Orange, a dash of bitters and topped with Prosecco. 

Along with the dates, Wendy set out some spicy chickpeas. Our cocktail to go along with the spice, was a very quick infusion we did just a few hours before the dinner. We bought a small bag of some dried pineapple, broke up about half the bag, dropped them into a liter of Tito’s Handmade Vodka, shook it and put it int he freezer. When it was ready, we poured 1.5 oz of the infusion into a glass, added some Pellegrino sparking lemon water and presto!

Wendy’s main course included a drunken kale salad, bloody mary veggies (both had Tito’s Handmade Vodka as an ingredient) and a grilled flank steak. We paired these dishes with our cucumber basil infusion which you can learn how to make from Tito and Floyd in this video. We strained the the cucumber basil infusion and poured about 2 oz of it it right into guests glasses over lots of ice.

For dessert, we paired Wendy’s almond and tart cherry cakes with with a cherry ginger mule. 5 hours before dinner, we added a big handful of dried cherries to a liter of Tito’s Handmade Vodka and put it in the freezer. When time came for dessert, we poured 1.5 oz of the cherry infusion into one of our copper mugs over crushed ice, topped it with ginger beer and set limes wedges out if people wished to add a squeeze.

Truly a night to remember! Thanks to Wendy, Allison, Floyd, Katy and all of our musician pals who make Austin what it is.

Photos by Katy Gelhausen and Beth Bellanti