CANJE

A pastry chef gets personal (and savory) at this pan-Caribbean paradise

I was not hungry when I arrived for dinner at Canje. In fact, I was wishing for oblivion. Scouting restaurants is all fun and games until you're halfway through a cross-Texas road trip, soaked in meat sweats and staring down the barrel of your fifth meal of the day.

Minutes after I sat down on the shaded patio, my foul mood was but a memory. I'm not sure if it was the frosty charred-coconut mezcal cocktail, the highly informed server, or the atmosphere-stylish yet welcoming with a palpable party vibe. But by the time our red snapper ceviche hit the table, I felt like my stomach had miraculously grown three sizes, like the Grinch's heart after he learned the true meaning of Christmas.

The feast intensified: salty-crisp hunks of bacalaíto kissed with zingy mint mojo sauce, one of the most flavorful beef curries I've ever tasted, golden brown lily pads of Guyanese roti to soak it all up. Then came the dish I still dream about: a pillow of crispy-skinned wild bass resting in a pool of rum butter sauce so plush and creamy I wanted to bathe in it. I knew before the coconut-milk-soaked tres leches cake hit the table that I was absolutely dining at one of the best new restaurants in the country.

For this I have one key person to thank: co-owner Tavel Bristol-Joseph, a Guyana-born pastry chef who's been at the helm of some of Austin's most beloved eateries (Emmer & Rye, Hestia, Kalimotxo, Henbit, TLV) with his business partner, chef Kevin Fink. As Bristol-Joseph later told me, Canje is different from the other businesses-not just because he's taking the lead on savory dishes, but because it's the first time in his restaurant career that he's cooking the kind of food he grew up with. "When I first moved to Austin, I googled Caribbean food and the only thing that came up was a food truck," he says. "I was like, Wow. There's not even a space that I can take my girlfriend, sit down with her, and say, "This is my culture."