Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel
Tracy Malechek-Ezekiel is an American chef and restaurateur. In 2023 her restaurant Birdie's in Austin, Texas, was named by Food & Wine their Restaurant of the Year.
Early life and education
Malechek-Ezekiel was born and raised in Tomball, Texas, near Houston. She spent summers on her grandparents' sheep and goat ranch in west Texas. Her grandfather, Phil Aiello, moved to Brooklyn from Calabria when he was twelve.She graduated from the University of Houston. She graduated from the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, New York.
Career
After graduating from the University of Houston, Malechek-Ezekiel worked in Spain; in Chicago, where she worked at Lula Cafe; and in New York City, where she worked at Cru, Del Posto, Blue Hill, Gramercy Tavern and Untitled.In 2021 she and her husband, sommelier Arjav Ezekiel, opened Birdie's, a counter-service wine bar in Austin, Texas. The restaurant's service model, which Austin Monthly calls a "new take", maintains a minimal front-of-house staff; it takes no reservations, all diners stand in line to place their initial orders and seat themselves, and further service is not assigned to a single server. It closes for two weeks in August and two weeks in late December/early January to provide staff paid time off. The restaurant was named to The New York Times 2021 Restaurant List. The Austin American-Statesman named it Austin's best new restaurant of 2021. It was named Food & Wine's 2023 Restaurant of the Year. The couple also run pop-up Italian restaurants called Aiello's after Malechek-Ezekiel's grandfather.