Hot Headlines

Austin pizza joint closes last location after 38 years, plus more top stories

Brick Oven is closing its last location on November 30.

Brick Oven

Editor's note: It's that time again — time to check in with our top stories. Here are five articles that captured our collective attention over the past seven days.

1. Austin's iconic wood-fired pizza restaurant closes last location after 38 years. Another beloved Austin restaurant is closing — but not for the obvious reason. Brick Oven, the homegrown, wood-fired pizza joint that’s been an Austin staple since 1982, is closing its one remaining location at the end of November to reportedly make way for an expanded H-E-B.

2. Downtown Austin taqueria closes permanently due to COVID-19. Fareground food hall has lost another local tenant. The latest to leave is Dai Due Taqueria, an offshoot of local butchery and eatery Dai Due.

3. Austin's newest park opens to public and welcomes a most unusual creature. The city's newest park is welcoming a most unusual visitor — a 20-foot octopus named Ocho. The striking art installation is just one of the many features of Jessie Andrews Park, now open in East Austin.

4. Former Hollywood heartthrob settles down at Hill Country riverfront compound. Austin cannot get enough of those dang Van Der Beeks.

5. Austin television series inspired by Texas Monthly rassles up big-name star. Thomas Haden Church has signed on to play The Texanist, based on the popular Texas Monthly column of the same name. The show will be set in Austin, but no word on if it will shoot here.

hot-headlines

This week's hot headlines

Wurstfest waltzes into this week's 5 hottest Austin headlines

Photo courtesy of Wurstfest

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Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. New Braunfels sausage and beer extravaganza Wurstfest returns for 2024. German culture is on display in many subtle ways throughout Texas' historic towns; Wurstfest is not one of those ways. This oompah-driven, battered-and-fried, lederhosen-clad beer and sausage festival is coming back to New Braunfels for its annual festivities November 1-10.

2. Sixth Street icehouse branches out with posh, old-school sports club. There’s no shortage of spots to grab a drink in East Austin. But despite the area’s wide range of bar offerings — from cocktail lounges to dives — it comes up surprisingly short on sports bars. Enter Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF) Sporting Club, which is taking over the giant East 7th space vacated earlier this year by Easy Tiger.

3. Austin's famous Katz's makes a comeback in the same location. There is good news this week for all Austinites pining for a simpler — and if you ask them, better — Austin of the past. The beloved West 6th Street eatery Katz's is making a comeback more than 10 years after it famously closed. Someone in the Katz family has re-purchased the original location and is hoping to bring back the good old days.

4. Popular Austin hospitality group stirs up sunny new daytime cafe. Since debuting in 2009, Jack Allen’s Kitchen’s weekend brunch has been a staple of Austin’s many best-of lists. Now, owners Jack Gilmore and Tom Kamm are upping the ante. The restaurateurs have founded a new concept, Day Maker Half Day Café, to bring that AM magic seven days a week.

5. Spectacular Austin Trail of Lights gets even more festive with weddings. Locals who feel sentimental about the 60-year-old Austin Trail of Lights now have a shimmering new way to make it part of their personal stories. Surely many have proposed to partners at the Christmas installation, but now they can get married there, too.