Austin Restaurants I Miss
I often ruminate on restaurants that have come and unfortunately gone in the nearly 40 years I’ve lived in Austin. While I’ve only officially been talking and writing about restaurants since 1998 I’ve always been a foodie. So some of these go way back. LA VISTA AT THE HYATTAbsolutely the best fajitas ever. Most nights […]
Creek Road Cafe in in Dripping Springs Closes
For quite some time, we enjoyed a number of memorable meals at Creek Road Cafe in Dripping. It featured high-end cuisine in a relatively casual setting. Chef Chae, who had overcome a lung transplant to work his magic in the kitchen, produced some of the best soups we’d found anywhere in Austin. Additionally he worked wonders […]
Austin Java Closes Three Stores
We awoke the other morning craving breakfast tacos and banana nut muffins, so I googled Austin Java on 290 which is a few minutes from our house in Highpointe to get their phone number. I was shocked and saddened to see “Permanently Closed” in stark red letters. We’ve loved Austin Java: the breakfast quesadillas, the muffins, and […]
Chinatown’s Downtown Austin Location to Close
I got a call from Ronald Cheng friday night. He told me that after considerable thought he had decided to close the iconic Chinatown downtown location on West 5th Street. A decision of this magnitude is not made lightly. Ronald finally had to deal with the combined effects of a lease issue, social distancing (which […]
The Stark Reality for Some of Our Less Fortunate Local Restaurants
This letter and announcements like it that I’ve gotten from local restaurants tear at the heart strings. God bless them and here’s hoping that they can reopen soon!
Popular Downtown Steak and Seafood Restaurant III Forks to Temporarily Suspend Curbside and Delivery Services
III Forks, one of the Balon family’s favorite restaurants, has announced that due to health concerns for their employees and customers (and to do their best to help Austin flatten the curve of the coronavirus’ spread), they will temporarily suspend curbside service and deliveries until those health concerns allow a resumption. The emphasis here is […]
Uncle Billy’s Brewery & Smokehouse Closing on Barton Springs and Moving to Dripping Springs
Uncle Billy’s Brewery & Smokehouse has been serving up craft beers and BBQ in its Barton Spring Road location for quite some time. They’ve recently disclosed that the original location is closing and they’re relocating to a yet to be named location in Dripping Springs. This news could make the owners of The Switch a […]
El Patio, Austin’s Model for Hospitality and Longevity, to Close August 9th
Owner David Joseph and Rob at recent anniversary celebration for El Patio The loss of El Patio can only be measured in personal terms, at least for me. Like so many other Austinites, El Patio has been a foundation for us. I can’t count the number of times festive events in our lives have revolved […]
Lox, Box & Barrel on 290 Closes
I hate to see signs like this on restaurant doors. Lox, Box & Barrel was a great deli and they made terrific bagels and sandwiches. It was vintage mom and pop, and precisely what the southwest area of Austin needed. I can’t fathom how they couldn’t make the lease work. Probably another example where […]
Sweetish Hill Closes; will Reopen with New Name, Ownership
Larry McGuire continues to evolve his Austin food empire with the acquisition of the iconic Sweetish Hill Bakery which will soon reopen as Swedish Hill Bakery Café & Deli as part of McGuire Moorman Hospitality. The idea is for the new Swedish Hill to serve as a baked goods source for McGuire’s other concepts like […]
Sullivan’s Steakhouse to Close After 20-Year Run
I must tell you that while this saddens me, it is not surprising. Downtown Austin literally has more steakhouses than it knows what to do with. It was inevitable that one of the dominoes would fall. But that’s capitalism for you. Thing is in the late 1990’s Sullivan’s lounge was THE place to be seen […]
The Wise Guy Kitchen has Closed
The Wise Guy Kitchen, the 5th St. food truck with the usual dishes named after organized crime guys, has gone dark. I tried it once and found it to be OK. I grew up not far from NYC and had the opportunity to sample the grinders and hoagies from Brooklyn to Queens that Wise Guy […]
