Hot Headlines

Austin fusion restaurant makes a temporary move and more top stories

Ramen Del Barrio has set up a short-term residency on Airport Boulevard.

Ramen Del Barrio/Instagram

Editor's note: The top Austin news of the week is full of restaurant moves, including several high-profile closures. Catch up on our most popular stories below, then visit this guide to plan your weekend.

1. Austin's Mexican ramen spot starts residency with Chinese-American 'dive.' Unique fusion spot Ramen Del Barrio is briefly closed as it moves from one location to the next. However, according to a late December Instagram post, guests can still pick up lunch during a "down time" residency on Airport Boulevard.

2. Cupcake pioneer Sprinkles shutters all stores, including one in Austin. A nationwide cupcake bakery has shuttered all of its locations, including in Austin.

3. Workers at 3 Austin restaurants say owner has ghosted them without pay. Employees at three Austin restaurants claim they were not paid ahead of the holiday season. Workers employed by the Flavor Hospitality Group, which operates Gusto Italian Kitchen, Gina’s on Congress, and Gracia Mediterranean, said they hadn't heard from the company’s owner in more than a week.

4. 15-year steakhouse closes as another finds footing in Austin food news. Austin's restaurant scene is jumping into 2026 with new restaurants saying hello and longtime restaurants saying goodbye.

Vince Young Steakhouse in Austin, Texas. Vince Young Steakhouse will close in January. Courtesy photo

5. Iconic Austin Italian restaurant Vespaio closing after nearly 30 years. Italian icon Vespaio has confirmed it will close for good February 28, taking Oaxacan sister restaurant Chapulín Cantina with it.

The Forest For the Trees

Austin's food forest says pipeline will disrupt free foraging

Festival Beach Food Forest/Facebook

Festival Beach Food Forest is worried that land it has developed will be ruined by city construction.

Construction continues to ramp up on the I-35 Capital Express Central project through downtown and Central Austin, but with that construction comes challenges for nearby businesses and community organizations.

Among those raising concerns is Festival Beach Food Forest, which said the construction could affect its nearby green spaces.

The organization, located on city park land near Lady Bird Lake, has spent the past decade cultivating a public food forest where Austinites can forage for free produce. But now, organizers told KVUE that a temporary wastewater pipeline relocation tied to the highway expansion could destroy a portion of the site.

“We have peach trees. All of these guys will be full of fruit in the summer,” said Angie Holiday, the program manager for Fruitful Commons, the nonprofit that oversees the forest. “People just love to come here. It’s an oasis, honestly, in the middle of the city.”

However, that oasis may soon be disrupted. According to the organization, the pipeline trench would cut through a section of the forest that has been under active improvement since a city-approved expansion in 2021. Holiday said the team was only notified about the construction about a month before it was set to begin.

“It’s not just that we have over 90 trees and shrubs directly in the line of fire from this wastewater pipe, but we're also going to see the impacts of ripping out this ecosystem that we've spent the last year and a half creating that involves soil and irrigation lines,” said Angelina Alanis, communications coordinator for the Festival Beach Food Forest.

The nonprofit is now calling for an immediate pause on the project in the area while it works with the city of Austin and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to find a solution.

Read the full story at our news partner KVUE.com.

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