The Mighty Cone

Specialties

Remember those delicious Hot ‘n’ Crunchy cones from the Austin City Limits Music Festival? You know, the ones… chicken, shrimp or avocado crusted in a mixture of almonds, sesame seeds, corn flakes, chili flakes and sugar, then «deep sautéed» and placed in a tortilla-​lined paper cone and topped with a jalapeño and mango slaw. Mmm… we hear your stomach growling!

Well, now you can enjoy Hudson’s cones in downtown Austin all year long… for less than $ 10. We invite you to The Mighty Cone, a Hudson’s on the Bend food trailer now open on South Congress. The trailer also features Cone Dogs made with Hudson’s venison sausage, sliders made from all natural beef, guajillo chili-​dusted fries, hand-​dipped shakes and more. All you «Cone-​heads» can feel good about indulging – a percentage of all net profits will be donated to the Sustainable Food Center, Communities In Schools of Central Texas and Caritas of Austin.

Meet the Business Owner

Jeff Blank and Robert Rhoades.

Business Owner

In 2002, the Austin City Limit Music Festival contacted Hudson’s on the Bend owner Chef Jeff Blank to help them spearhead their efforts to entice local restaurants to join the festival’s food court. Their goal was to create festival food that would emulate the unique heritage of Austin cuisine.

Blank and Executive Chef Robert Rhoades began to experiment with the famous Hot ‘n’ Crunchy breading on a variety of foods. Chicken proved to be a good, festival-​friendly candidate – delicious, popular and relatively inexpensive (especially compared to the more typical Hudson’s fare of pheasant or trout). They wrapped the chicken in a tortilla and popped it into a paper drink cone (to make it easier for festival-​goers to eat and walk to the next stage), topped it with a mango-​jalapeño slaw and ancho sauce and Voila! the Hot ‘n’ Crunchy Chicken Cone was born. Cone sales at ACL Festival soared, and the chefs eventually expanded their Hot ‘n’ Crunchy repertoire to include avocado and shrimp.