Barton Springs Chinese Restaurant Spins Off a New Southeast Asian-Texas Barbecue Truck
South Austin modern Chinese restaurant Zoé Tong is getting into the barbecue game this spring. It’s opening a new food truck, Si Baby-Q, at the restaurant on 1530 Barton Springs Road in the Zilker neighborhood starting sometime in April.
Barton Springs Chinese Restaurant Spins Off a New Southeast Asian-Texas Barbecue Truck
Zoé Tong’s Si Baby-Q food truck will serve Indonesian long peppered-briskets, queso cacio e pepe, and roti.
When co-owners Simone Tong and Matthew Hyland got the Barton Springs space for their restaurant, they inherited the on-site smoker from one of the space’s previous tenants Uncle Billy’s. They had been using the equipment for some of Zoé’s dishes — like the sticky barbecue ribs and duck — but they wanted to do more. Through general manager Travis Vergara, they met Jonathan Lagos, the pitmaster of the nearby restaurant Terry Black’s Barbecue. He began helping the team on a part-time basis with their smoked meats. He had mentioned he wanted to open his own food business, and so Si Baby-Q was born.
Si Baby-Q’s menu will be rooted in Texas barbecue with Mexican and Southeast Asian inflections — Lagos is Mexican American and Tong Singaporean. This means brisket made with salt and Indonesian long peppers; smoked chicken served with Hainanese chicken rice; esquites with ssamjang paste; queso cacio e pepe; and swapping white bread slices for roti.
The name of the truck stems from Hyland’s nickname for Tong, whose actual name is Si, so Si Baby. The bright pink trailer is parked on the restaurant’s patio, covered in cartoon imagery similar to Zoe Tong’s exterior, featuring fantastical creatures with meats and vegetables playing around the Colorado River, as well as Tong herself working a grill.
Tong and Hyland opened Zoe Tong in Austin in the fall of 2023, after moving to the city together from their respective New York City-based restaurants Chinese American wine spot Silver Apricot and pizzeria Emily/Emmy Squared.
