Editor’s note: We get it. It can be difficult to keep up with the fast pace of Austin’s restaurant and bar scene. We have you covered with our regular roundup of essential food news.

Openings

After months of operating under limited hours, the east side’s most anticipated new casual patio/coffee shop/bar and food truck spot is fully open. Run out of a quaint, historic 1930s Victorian home on East Riverside Drive is Ani’s Day & Night. Owners and longtime Austin hospitality workers Rachael Garbowski and Zach Herigodt are serving up an array of coffee drinks prepared using Greater Goods brand beans, as well as pastries from local bakeries Texas French Bread and Zucchini Kill. For beverages, Ani’s offers inspired Aperol and tequila-forward frozen cocktails, and a selection of natural wine and beer. Onsite food truck Las Alegres Comadres serves a wide selection of regional Mexican fare, including tacos, tlacoyos, and pambazo sandwiches (including a weekly cochinita pibil special), and Jamaica-inspired food truck Nyam Sunshine Cuisine offers Caribbean fare like fruit quinoa bowls, jerk chicken, and corn fritters. Puerto Rican operation Plantain Bar will be on hand for a weekly Monday evening pop-up. Ani’s Day & Night is open daily from 7 am-11 pm.

Something fishy is going down with the popular Latinx-owned restaurant group behind the Mexican restaurant and bar concepts Gabriela’s, Taquero Mucho, Revival Coffee, and Mala Vida — and that’s a great thing! Now open from Austin culinary veteran and Gabriela’s Group founder Gabriela Bucio: Seareinas, a Mexican seafood and sushi concept. Drawing inspiration from the Sinaloa-style seafood recipes that Bucio and her brother, co-owner Arturo, grew up eating, Seareinas features menu specials that highlight both traditional Mexican fare and modern sushi options with a Sinaloa twist, all made using fresh fish flown in daily from the Gulf of California and the Pacific Ocean. Seareinas’ bar program features a bevy of margaritas, craft cocktails, and micheladas inspired by the fruits that grew in the orchard of Bucio’s childhood backyard in Mexico. Designed by two woman-owned boutique Austin firms (Unhinged Studio and Brwn Collective), the new restaurant features more than 5,000 square feet of indoor dining space, and is located at 6607 N. I-35.

Other news and notes

Fans of Austin brunch fave Holy Roller, which closed in the fall of 2020 after three years in business, will be hot to learn that Holy Roller chef and restaurateur Callie Speer has made the switch to barbecue. Speer has joined the team at Dripping Springs barbecue destination The Switch. “Sometimes the stars align and some really fun things happen. We are so very happy to announce the addition of the amazingly talented Callie Speer, joining the all-star team at The Switch,” reads a recent social media post from The Switch. “Y’all are in for a real treat.” Barbecue treats from one of Austin’s coolest chefs? Yes, please!

Something wicked(-ly refreshing) this way comes! Commodore Perry Estate — Austin’s premier 10-acre, European-style luxury hotel — has partnered with renowned multi-city craft cocktail operation Death & Co. The highly anticipated collaboration will take place throughout the month of August, and will include Death & Co.’s takeover of the resort’s Living Room Bar August 13 and 14 from 5-10 pm; a weekday punchbowl experience with cocktails crafted by Death & Co. mixologists; and an in-room bar cart for guests featuring customized barware, exclusive bottled cocktails, and a copy of the hardcover book Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails. Visit the estate’s website for more info.

Elsewhere in essential cocktail news, Bull & Bowl — the city’s first combination duckpin bowling alley, bar, bistro, arcade, and mechanical bull venue — is introducing perhaps the most Texan large-format cocktail there is: one served in a cowboy hat. Though not actually served in a vaquero’s trusty, custom-made headwear, each of Bull & Bowl’s three new big-as-Texas cocktails comes served in a humorously large cowboy-hat-shaped vessel that’s filled to the brim with 100 ounces of liquid libation and is perfect for sharing. To celebrate the new special, the cowboy hat cocktails will be available all night for the discounted price of $40 on Saturday, July 24. Further tipping its hat to commemorate the occasion, Bull & Bowl will offer free mechanical bull rides all night. Yee haw!