Chef Silvino Sanchez has spent years cooking his way back to Austin.
At Hermanas, now open at 1100 E. Sixth St., the Austin-born chef isn’t trying to neatly divide the Mexican, Thai and Lao influences that shaped him. They’re already intertwined, the result of childhood summers in Mexico, growing up in Del Valle and the kitchens where he eventually learned his trade.
The restaurant’s name reaches back to his father’s hometown, Ejido Primero de Mayo in Coahuila, Mexico. Locals know it as Hermanas, after the historic train station connecting the region to Mexico City. Sanchez remembers visiting as a kid, riding the train to see family and watching his paternal grandmother dry meat on her porch before pounding it into machaca for tacos wrapped in fresh flour tortillas.
On his mother’s side, summers were spent in Guadalajara. Sanchez followed his maternal grandmother through the mercado and worked alongside her in the kitchen. On the rooftop, she’d hand him a bucket and corn to strip from the cob for the next morning’s tortillas.
Back in Austin, another influence was taking hold.
Sanchez grew up surrounded by Thai and Lao friends whose families welcomed him to their tables. He eventually landed at Thai Kun, working under chef Thai Changthong and learning that balancing a dish meant considerably more than making it hot. Sanchez calls what he developed there his “Thai tongue.”
Four years as sous chef at Denver’s Michelin-starred BRUTØ followed before Sanchez returned to Austin to open his first solo restaurant.
A Menu That Doesn’t Need the Fusion Label
Hermanas makes the most sense when those experiences land on the same plate. Callo de Hacha Tostada starts with scallop and an heirloom corn tostada before nam prik pla ra, a Thai chile paste, enters the picture. Wagyu Larb pairs Texas Wagyu tri-tip with larb spice, lime leaf aioli and tostadas, tracing back to meals Sanchez shared with friends as a teenager.
Then there’s Panang Curry Mole, built around Texas beef, xnipec and Thai basil. Its roots stretch back to Sanchez’s Thai Kun days, when he’d bring panang curry home after working the line.
Calling all of this Mexican-Southeast Asian fusion would be convenient. It would also flatten the story.
These aren’t two unrelated cuisines being pushed together for novelty. For Sanchez, they occupied the same life long before they shared a restaurant menu.
That idea carries into the bar. Hermanas leans heavily into agave spirits and Southeast Asian flavors, including a Thai Iced Tea Carajillo made with tequila, mezcal, Licor 43 and Thai tea oat foam. The wine program includes natural and semi-natural bottles alongside selections from emerging Mexican wine regions.
The restaurant itself is intimate, with a 52-seat dining room and 22-seat covered patio. Exposed brick, dark wood, Mexican iconography and references to the old Hermanas train station give Sanchez’s family history a physical presence in the room.
Plenty of restaurants tell you where a chef has worked. Hermanas is more interested in explaining where its chef came from.
Hermanas is located at 1100 E. Sixth St., Austin, TX 78702. Dinner is served Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 5 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m. Reservations are available through OpenTable.