Chef Jack Allen Gilmore started working in steakhouses at 15 years old in Brownsville, Texas. By 1989, he had co-founded Z'Tejas — a restaurant chain that became a fixture in Austin dining for more than two decades. But when the brand grew too corporate for his taste, Gilmore walked away to build something closer to his roots.
"I believed in what we did, but it became too corporate," he said. "My philosophy was to keep it local, keep it fun."
In December 2009, he opened Jack Allen's Kitchen in Austin's Oak Hill neighborhood. The restaurant's philosophy was radical for its time: source 80 percent of ingredients from local Texas farms, ranches, and producers. It was farm-to-table before farm-to-table was a trend.
Today, Jack Allen's Kitchen has grown to six locations across the Austin metro — Oak Hill, 360, Anderson Lane, Round Rock, Cedar Park, and Hutto. The restaurant has won the Austin Chronicle's "Best Weekend Brunch" award, earned multiple First Plates honors, received a TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Award, and carries a 4.6-star Google rating across thousands of reviews.
Gilmore even published a cookbook through the University of Texas Press: Jack Allen's Kitchen: Celebrating the Tastes of Texas. And the culinary talent runs in the family — his son Bryce Gilmore, owner of Barley Swine and Odd Duck, was named a Food & Wine Best New Chef and is a James Beard Foundation Award semifinalist.
The frozen margarita program at Jack Allen's features strawberry, mango, pomegranate sangria, and black cherry varieties — all served across six locations with a focus on local ingredients.