Hot New Restaurants

Here's your first taste of 3 hot new restaurants opening soon in Austin

Old Thousand is bringing Chinese food to East 11th Street.

For every Austin restaurant closure, a new concept is waiting in the wings. Here are three concepts coming soon to the local dining scene, two of which are swooping into high-profile spaces.

Citizen Eatery
Citizen Eatery will be replacing the shuttered 416 Bar & Grille on Burnet Road. Opening in October, this brand-new concept will have an all-vegetarian menu with vegan and Paleo-friendly dishes.

"Our basic approach is to view what we're doing as art," owner Michael Moyer tells CultureMap. "It should be mentioned that Citizen Eatery is not really about being vegetarian/vegan. It just so happens that we choose not to cook with a few standard proteins (you can get that anywhere). We're more about good taste and tasting good."

Veggie burgers will be the specialty, but chef Andrew Brooks of Spirited Food has been tapped to create flame-grilled, wood-smoked entrees, as well as shareable sides and all-day breakfast. The restaurant will also feature healthy adult beverages dubbed Citizen Smart Spirits.

"We figure if you don't already imbibe, great! Don't start. But if you do, why not pour some healthy stuff in the glass. Since part of our mission is to source as much local and organic as we can, we're planning on making some infusions with different blends of tasty botanicals that'll take a little load of the liver," says Moyer.

Old Thousand
This fall, anticipate the arrival of Old Thousand in the old Mijo's space on East 11th Street. The concept is the first of four new projects from SMGB, a new restaurant group comprising talent from top spots like Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Hai Hospitality.

Uchi alums James Dumapit and David Baek are creating a lineup of "American-Chinese food, all the stuff we grew up eating," says Chris Romero of SMBG. "The term we've been using is 'remixed' — better ingredients and better technique, but still a neighborhood Chinese restaurant."

The restaurant hopes to become the go-to for Chinese food on the east side by serving up a mixture of dine-in and takeout options. Think of it as the kind of hangout spot where "the music is a little louder, the cocktails are a little stronger," says Romero.

Pitchfork Pretty
Another east side eatery, Pitchfork Pretty, is coming to East Cesar Chavez Street. Owner Seth Baas, who was behind the acclaimed Blanca restaurant in California, returns to his Texas roots with a passion for locally sourced ingredients and making high-end food accessible.

"The name comes from the owner wanting to pay homage to the farmer (pitchfork) and convey the restaurant's role in taking the farm's rustic elements and raw bounty into our hands to respectfully refine it for diners (pretty)," says a spokesperson.

The restaurant team is keeping mum on the chef right now, but diners can expect wood-fired cuisine. Texas is a melting pot of different international influences, from German to Mexican, and Pitchfork Pretty hopes to fuse all of these while incorporating old-world cooking methods.

The restaurant was designed to be an open, contemporary space befitting the growing East Cesar Chavez neighborhood. When Pitchfork Pretty opens — hopefully this winter — the restaurant will join several new dining spots in the area, including Austin Daily Press and Jacoby's new Mexican concept.

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More sushi, more seats

Famous Austin omakase restaurant moves into bigger space with new bar

Photo courtesy of Sushi | Bar Hospitality

Sushi | Bar is moving into a new spot. (Photo from a Sushi | Bar location in another city)

Another day, another update from a sushi restaurant in Austin. This is a big one: Sushi | Bar Austin, a prestigious omakase spot with other well-known locations in Dallas, Chicago, and three other U.S. cities, is shaking things up with a move into the center of downtown. It'll also debut a new cocktail lounge concept in January of 2025, with help from some celebrated mixologists.

Sushi | Bar is currently located at 2600 E. Cesar Chavez St., and it's moving about two miles to 419 West 2nd St. The move places it across from Local Foods, Numero28, and the Violet Crown Cinema. A press release says it "represents an evolution for the Sushi | Bar experience," which includes more seatings.

This sushi counter has a very upscale reputation thanks to its exclusive accommodations — originally only 10 seats — as well as the intrinsic formality of omakase, which is a service style where the chef chooses what a diner will taste. In the new space, there will be two rooms that each seat 12 guests, more than doubling the chance to snag a reservation.

There, they'll enjoy 17 courses featuring imports from Japan, New Zealand, and California, among other markets. Nigiri options (sliced fish on top of rice) will change with the seasons.

$\u200bSushi | Bar$ This nigiri gets some texture sprinkled on top.Photo courtesy of Sushi | Bar Hospitality

Most notably, the new location will be connected to the cocktail lounge Golden Ace. According to the release, the idea to extend the experience past the omakase portion came from customer feedback. It'll be bigger than Sushi | Bar — about 1,400 square feet compared to 1,100 — and seats 35-40 guests.

The cocktail program will be led by Christian “Suzu” Suzuki-Orellana, who competed on the Netflix show Drink Masters and also draws in partners from Middlehouse, the group behind luxe local cocktail bars Here Nor There and In Plain Sight. He'll have the help of lead bartender Brett Esler, who co-founded Murray’s Tavern and was a nominee for Best Bartender in CultureMap's 2019 Tastemaker Awards.

They'll focus on "elevated yet approachable cocktails" with Japanese influences that "seamlessly blend tradition with modern mixology," the release says. Although Golden Ace is connected to Sushi | Bar, it will have its own unique atmosphere.

“This was a location that we came across moments after it became available on the market,” said Ryan Stock, co-founder of Adept Hospitality, the group behind Sushi | Bar, in the release. “We knew it was the perfect fit for the next iteration of Sushi | Bar in its hometown. It’s a premium experience, and this is a premium location, right at the center of Austin’s exciting downtown development. We’re thrilled to bring our elevated omakase experience to such a vibrant area."

$\u200bSushi | Bar$ With 17 courses, there will be lots to try.Photo courtesy of Sushi | Bar Hospitality

The release traces this Austin history back to 2020, in a collaboration between Ryan Stock, Josh Tohl, and Jonathan Husby of Adept Hospitality and Steve Michaels of Asylum Entertainment Group. Phillip Frankland Lee was also part of the business as a chef and minority stakeholder, it says, until leaving in 2021.

Sushi | Bar also highlights some of its current team members: lead sushi chef Bryan Williams, director of culinary strategy at Sushi Bar Hospitality Anthony Martin, hospitality group vice president Justin Sanford, and the new general manager, John Sizemore.

Now business relations extend to the family behind Terry Black’s BBQ, which Stock explains came out of a mutual culinary admiration with Mark Black and his family. So far, the release does not detail what the collaboration will entail.

“An organic love for each other’s operations turned into a friendship, which ultimately led to this collaboration," he said. "Sushi | Bar’s DNA certainly begins in Austin, and Terry Black’s is the staple and standard when it comes to Austin BBQ. A new project in downtown Austin was the perfect opportunity for the two great Austin names to finally collaborate together.”

Reservations for Sushi | Bar open on the first of every month.

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