The almost hilariously swanky W Hotel will undoubtedly be the hipster nerve center during SXSW, ACL, and the myriad other festivals that attract celebrities to Austin throughout the year. As such, its only restaurant, Trace, will see tons of action without even trying; but it seems aware that within walking distance several acclaimed restaurants threaten to pull focus. So try it does, employing so-new-they’re-passé trends like spray-painting Baroque furnishings in a solid dove-gray and plastering its menus (and intimidating its waitstaff) with gallant displays from the age of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Such displays merely posture, though, when the kitchen’s hardly able to make sense of them: a bare, overpriced salad with “soil” (whose rye-flavored crumbiness replaces the ungainly crouton rather well), “foraged” mushrooms lost in a soupy polenta (the on-staff forager has received almost as much publicity as the hotel itself), “hunted” scallops (by death-defying divers!), and all the foams, truffle oil, and nouvelle rustique fetishes that guarantee media buzz. But all that carefully packaged care can’t save mushy fish, paired monotonously with cauliflower and a slice of green apple that doesn’t know what it’s doing there. Stick to the decent charcuterie board, and dessert from one of the city’s most talented new pastry chefs. Otherwise, the wine list’s perfunctory and dull, and few cocktails are excellent and interesting. This, with world-class beverage programs just a block away? Looks like someone didn’t complete their homework.