LONE STAR
"When Emmett Fox and his wife, Lisa, opened FINO a little over a year ago, they decided to start with Italy, France and Spain before broadening the menu to other Mediterranean countries. At the second-floor space with bright striped banquettes, items like lush fried goat cheese with honey are so popular they can't ever come off the menu. But now FINO also offers a robust vegetarian Moroccan tagine with eggplant, sweet potato and currant couscous."

"'Modern, minimalist decor' that's both 'casual and chic' makes for a 'welcoming atmosphere' at this 'hip''new addition to the West Campus cuisine scene'; also 'inviting' is the 'inventive' Med menu featuring 'fresh ingredients in simple, flavorful dishes', which are served with 'interesting mixed drinks' and a 'wonderful wine list' by a 'personable staff'; P.S. 'when the temperature dips below 100 degrees, the nice outdoor seating''is hard to beat.'"

"A sleek, tasty tapas-and-more spot that proudly extends the ASTI empire."

Food 9.2/10 Experience 9.3/10

"Some new restaurants seem like sure bets, and Fino is one of them. Owned by one of Austin's best restaurant teams and housed in one of its most beloved venues, Fino is destined to shine. With Fino, the Foxes have ventured beyond Italian. Global in scope, the new menu focuses on Mediterranean cuisines, with dishes from Spain, France, Greece and Italy all making appearances. The wine list is equally eclectic, with many Spanish and French selections, along with Australian, Portuguese and Italian choices. The space is both airy and cozy, intimate and urban. It feels good to be back."

"The buzz surrounding the new restaurant in the old Granite Cafe location has been considerable. Guess what? It lives up to the hype. The owners of Asti have created a relaxed and stylish venue and a menu that spans the Mediterranean from Spain (Basque olives with a distinctive "cure" and tender cubed pork pinchitos sprinkled with sea salt) to France (lemony pot de creme) to the Middle East (a great appetizer platter with hummus, baba ganouj, and tzatziki sauce). Numerous small plates encourage sharing, and a table on the patio is perfect for sipping a glass of fino, the dry sherry for which the restaurant is named."

Fino was featured in the following article, "How to Open a Restaurant" by Patricia Sharpe in the September 2005 issue.

"I was sitting at my desk earlier this year wondering if anyone would notice if I left for lunch at ten-thirty when the phone rang. Cruelly torn from my reverie of cheese enchiladas, I picked up the receiver. On the line were Lisa and Emmett Fox, Austin chefs and restaurateurs, who had an offer that no food critic in her right mind could refuse: "We're opening a new restaurant, they said. "Wanna watch? I asked them to hold for a minute while I cleared my calendar. And that is how I got to be - I was about to say "a fly on the wall," but that seems an unfortunate metaphor - an embedded reporter chronicling the highs and lows of the eight-month gestation of Fino Restaurant, Patio, and Bar.

For three decades I've been looking on as fledgling dining establishments struggle to open - often behind schedule and hopelessly muddled - so I was prepared for Murphy's Law to operate with a vengeance. But if anybody could survive the ordeal relatively unscathed, I thought, it was the Foxes, for the compelling reason that they had already opened one successful restaurant. At their five-year-old neighborhood place, Asti Trattoria, Emmett acts as paterfamilias to his staff and customers and Lisa takes care of business. A big bear of a man, Emmett graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York; Lisa who is shyer than you would expect for someone so pretty, studied art at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. But their experience isn't limited to Asti. Emmett worked at chic Cafe Annie, in Houston, and was executive chef for a restaurant group in Austin that included the Granite Cafe. Lisa, whose speciality is pastry, was in demand for her lavish desserts at several tony places around town. Now that Asti was running smoothly, they couldn't resist the lure of, well, having a second child.

By the time of our first meeting, in February, the two had already decided that their new baby would be Mediterranean. Casual but stylish, its menu would emphasize small plates meant for sharing. Wines would be important, especially interesting, affordable European ones. They evan had a name picked out: Fino. The word refers to a type of dry Spanish sherry and also means "fine" in both Spanish and Italian-surely a good omen. And they had a location, which by coincidence was Emmett's old stomping grounds, the now-defunct Granite Cafe. True, the interior needed an extreme makeover - it had last looked cool when Ronald Reagan was president - but otherwise, it was perfect: space for around a hundred, plenty of parking, and, sexiest of all, a covered patio.

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Fino was featured in the following article, "Fino, Finally" by Virginia B. Wood.

Once restaurateurs have achieved success with their first venture, they have three options. They can rest on their laurels, attempt to clone their first eatery with a second outlet, or develop a completely new concept in a different location. After a solid success with Asti Trattoria in the Hyde Park neighborhood, chef couple W. Emmett and Lisa Fox chose option No. 3. They spent most of 2004 scouting potential locations and took over the former Granite Cafe space just north and west of the UT campus area early this year. The Foxes hired a local architect making a name for himself designing restaurants of late, Michael Hsu, and interior designer Kasey McCarty, to reimagine the space, creating a distinctly different look for their second venture.

Fino Restaurant, Patio & Bar opened in mid-July of this year with little fanfare, but the word of mouth was instantly good, and crowds soon found their way to the new spot. The look at Fino is all understated contemporary sophistication: clean lines, warm Mediterranean earth tones, an attractive bar, and one of the most inviting outdoor dining spaces in the city. The menu encompasses influences from around the Mediterranean, featuring dishes from Nice to Morocco, Italy to Athens to Valencia, ably executed by chef Tristan White and his team.

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Fino was featured in the following article, "Where to Eat Now 2006" by Patricia Sharpe in the February 2006 issue.

Fino is Spanish and Italian for "fine." It's also a type of dry Spanish sherry. This makes it a perfect name for the attractive Mediterranean restaurant that is the second venture of Austin restaurateurs Emmett and Lisa Fox, owners of Asti Trattoria. Want something distinctly Middle Eastern? Try chef Tristan White's appetizer platter of soft, warm pita bread, smoky baba ganouj, tart tzatziki sauce, and house-made hummus. For something that combines a couple of cuisines, order the deep-flavored roast quail clad in a grape-leaf tunic and gilded with a spunky balsamic dressing. France is deliciously represented by the crumb-dusted fried goat cheese in a honey drizzle with jammy pickled onions. Greece inspires a well-stocked Greek salad. And Spain is the source of the cured Basque olives and toasted Marcona almonds that make such compulsively edible snacks. Spain is also, alas, the source of the consistency-challenged seafood paella. But far more things work than not here, so relax in the stylishly spare dining room or cozy up under a heat lamp on the second-story patio and order another glass of fino.

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Fino was featured in the following article, "Foxes' Granite Cafe Replacement Off to a Fabulous Start" by Dale Rice.

It's tough enough to operate one restaurant successfully. That's why a restaurateur's second or third location often leads to trouble.

There is, however, a new example of how to do things right: Emmett and Lisa Fox's Fino, their second restaurant and the upscale replacement for the longtime Granite Cafe.

The Foxes, whose Asti is a big hit in the Hyde Park neighborhood, moved beyond Italy in their new spot on the edge of Pemberton, with a menu that spreads across more of the Mediterranean, including Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Morocco.

But it's not the expanded menu that is making their second location a success; it's the way in which the food is prepared, plus the snappy service, sophisticated ambience and the Foxes' attitude that the restaurant isn't just about them. They're quick to give credit to chef Tristan White, general manager Brian Stubbs and wine director Boris Krouse, underscoring that teamwork is what makes most restaurants work.

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