Holiday Eats

All the best Austin restaurants to dine out this Thanksgiving

Relax and let the culinary pros take care of your Thanksgiving plans.

Trace

In all of the nostalgia of Thanksgiving, we tend to forget the insanity that accompanies the feast — the shopping, the preparation, and the clean-up afterwards. Why not make dining out on Thanksgiving a new tradition? Best of all, everyone, including the host and hostess, get to relax and enjoy sharing the meal with friends and family. That is a lot to be thankful for!

Whether it’s just the two of you or a large gathering of family and friends, we have scoped out the most interesting Thanksgiving menus and venues in Austin. Be sure to reserve in advance.

Fleming's
Ever wish you could skip the turkey and chow down on a great steak? For the first time Fleming's will be open on Thanksgiving Day, serving a four-course pre-fixe holiday meal, as well as the full menu offerings. Holiday menu includes brie cheese bites; lobster bisque; roasted turkey breast with savory gravy; brioche stuffing; mashed sweet potatoes; bacon, almond, and onion green beans; pumpkin cheesecake; and more. 11 am to 10 pm. $39.95 adults; 19.95 children. 512-457-1500.

Hyde Park Bar and Grill
Hyde Park Bar and Grill serves its annual feast, which features both a traditional menu and vegetarian option. Traditional dinner includes roasted turkey breast with cornbread stuffing and giblet gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes, and cranberry relish. Vegetarian feast includes more of the same vegetables, plus vegetarian stuffing and gravy. Desserts are priced separately and include pumpkin pie, peach pudding, pecan pie, and chocolate cake. 11 am to 7 pm at both locations. $21.95 traditional meal; $15.95 vegetarian option. No reservations.

Lonesome Dove
Come Turkey Day, Lonesome Dove will be serving an all-day dinner menu. The restaurant's full dinner menu will be available, along with a special holiday addition of roasted turkey roulade with chipotle purple mash and grilled green beans. Other seasonal highlights from Tim Love's menu include Gorgonzola-Bosc pear tart with baby kale and sherry vinaigrette; shaved Brussels with honey-lime vinaigrette, cotija, currants, and pine nuts; roasted quail with rabbit-rattlesnake/foie gras stuffing, haricot verts, and sweet corn puree; and more. 11 am to 8 pm. Reservations online or 512-271-2474.

Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill
Are you from the South and yearning for some of mom’s home cooking? Look no further than Moonshine’s all-you-can-eat buffet. Brunch buffet is first come, first served and includes chicken-fried turkey, prime rib, pumpkin pancakes, as well as Moonshine specialties. 10 am to 4 pm. $26 per person. No reservations.

Omni Barton Creek
Treat yourself to an unbelievable menu certain to please everyone in the group. Feast on traditional roast turkey and roasted pork, as well as seared salmon and Chianti braised beef, traditional sides, soups, an omelet bar, seafood bar, special children’s menu, and five choices for dessert. $70 adults; $30 children 6-12; $15 children 3-5; complimentary for children 2 and under. Seating available from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm. 512-329-7906.

The Park
We have the perfect solution for enjoying good food while watching your favorite teams. After all, football and Thanksgiving are as American as apple pie. With two locations (The Domain and South Lamar), The Park will be the place to catch college and professional games with drink specials served 4 to 8 pm ($5 mojitos and margaritas and $2.50 domestic and draft beers). There's a traditional turkey dinner buffet, including turkey, ham, cornbread stuffing, broccoli rice casserole, green bean casserole, pecan pie, and more. Buffet served noon to 3 pm. $17. Regular menu served after 3 pm. No reservations necessary.

Sophia's
Although it is closed on Thanksgiving Day, you can enjoy a sumptuous holiday meal served family-style at Sophia’s on November 23. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, and choice of apple or pumpkin pie. Served family-style for groups of eight or more. 5 pm to 11 pm on November 23. $35 per person. Reservations here.

Trace
Trace at W Austin is offering a gourmet pre-fixe three-course menu for adults and children, including starter, entrée, and dessert. Adult offerings include oysters Rockefeller, crispy skin snapper, vegetable paella, and sweet potato custard. 11 am to 8 pm. $57 adults; $17.95 children 12 and under. 512-542-3600.

Want to slip away from the family? The Living Room is hosting a "friendsgiving" evening with cocktails and music by DJ Diggy Dutch starting at 7 pm on November 23.

Trio at the Four Seasons
It's a buffet to end all buffets. This spectacular feast has over 80 offerings. Mouthwatering offerings include made-to-order omelets, buttermilk and blueberry pancakes, make-your-own chilaquiles, tarts, breads, rolls and pastries, six different salads, chilled shrimp and snow-crab, smoked salmon and trout, short ribs, roast turkey, five sides, and 11 desserts. Is it time for a nap yet? 11 am to 8 pm in Trio; 11 am to 3 pm in the ballroom with piano music. $90 adults; $35 children. 512-685-8300.

Visconti Ristorante
Craving Italian but have no time for a holiday getaway? Escape to Visconti Ristorante, perched high on the hills at Hotel Granduca. The menu highlights authentic northern Italian cuisine and seasonal locally sourced specialties. The restaurant will be offering a special gourmet lunch and dinner menu for Thanksgiving, including celery root velouté, Diestel Farms turkey, Shetland organic salmon, and bourbon pecan gelato. Noon to 8 pm, live entertainment from noon to 4 pm. $65 adults; $29 children 12 and under. Reservations: visconti@granducaaustin.com.

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Belles of the Ballroom

9 Austin bar and venue experts take over popular Old Austin space near UT

29th Street Ballroom/Facebook

Changes are coming at the 29th Street Ballroom, but the goal is to preserve what already makes it special.

The evolution continues at the 29th Street Ballroom, the music venue formerly attached to Spider House Café. It's no secret, Resound Presents CEO and co-founder Graham Williams says, that he and a large team of other industry pros are taking over the space; but now they're ready to talk about what comes next for the venue and adjoining bar.

Although Spider House Café closed in 2020, the Ballroom stayed open, and has continued serving University of Texas students and anyone else who wants to see a show outside of the ordinary: punk shows, burlesque revues, fundraisers, and more. It'll stay open through most of the renovations, scheduled through January of 2025, and is expected to hold a grand opening in March.

Now Resound — one of Austin's top live music organizers, which was itself born from the ashes of another Austin institution — is lending two of its co-founders to managing the space going forward: Williams and Ian Orth. They're joining seven other team members from venues around town, many of them overlapping: Amy Mullins, Brian Tweedy, Jason McNeely, John Yaklin, and Shannon LeBoeuf of Hotel Vegas, Chess Club, Kinda Tropical, Tweedy’s, and Yellow Jacket Social Club, in varying capacities; and Brian Buscemi and Mike Sanchez of the Little Darlin’.

Williams emphasizes that although things will be changing at the Ballroom, the goal isn't to change anything people already love.

"Over the next few months as we kind of ease into the spring, we're using this downtime to revitalize things, decorate, revamp some of the stuff in the venue and the bar, and just kind of get things moving in the right direction," Williams says, "taking what's already popular about the venue and just adding to it, really."

Bar updates
The biggest shift will be turning the bar from an accessory to live shows into its own entity that's open even when there's nothing else going on. Amy Mullins, best known as a co-owner of Yellow Jacket Social Club, is overseeing that transition. She's never operated a venue that is primarily focused on music, and has been enjoying learning more about how to do it; she even worked the door recently when a staff member called out sick.

Mullins echoes Williams in assuring that the change is more about logistics than tone. It'll still feel like Old Austin, but she does express a hope to run more than the "typical venue bar," handing out simple drinks as quickly as possible. She's working on a new menu that includes wine, beer, craft cocktails, and non-alcoholic options like tea, kombucha, or mocktails. Regardless of what's on the schedule on any given night, Mullins says the menu will stay the same.

"There's no drink too complicated for us to make, however busy we are," she says.

Food options
Another goal for the team will be making sure the space works when there's not someone onstage to crowd around. They'll expand the front and side patios and create a food truck food court that features the same trucks that are there now, plus one newcomer. All in all, that includes Yalla Burger & Wings, Gyro Center, Li’l Nonna’s Vegan Pizzeria, Guppy’s Indian Fried Chicken, Waylon J’s BBQ, and Ay Chihuahua Tacos.

The expanded patio will connect to Tweedy's Bar next door, which also has its own food trucks. The idea is to create a space to hang out after shows that feels fit for the purpose. It's possible to stick around after events now, but the layout does create a vague feeling of loitering.

Artist and fan-friendly tweaks
On the entertainment side, Williams says some of the renovations include putting in a new sound system, redoing the green room, updating the facade, and repainting signs. Since the winter is a slower time for live music, they'll be taking advantage of the extra time to work on things before packing the calendar with more events than before. Resound will handle most of the bookings in live music, comedy, and DJ sets, welcoming both national and local talent.

Whatever the details end up being, this team has proved to Austinites that they know how to run venues worth visiting. And since they're all friends and business partners on multiple levels, it sounds like having this many cooks in the kitchen just isn't an issue.

"Some of us have been roommates and known each other since we were young," says Williams. "It's a good mix of people who are all very like minded, so a lot is being brought to the table per decision. So yeah, it's it's really exciting. Sometimes that's not the case. .... But with this project, it's a lot of really great, creative people that are good at what they do [and] they trust each other."

bars live music concerts comedy

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