On Friday, March 6, the husband-and-wife team behind one of Austin’s most beloved neighborhood restaurants will debut a new bar just steps away from their dining room. Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher, owners of Michelin-recommended Lenoir, are opening Boni’s Bar Next Door at 1805 South 1st St., transforming a 1934 bungalow on the same property into what they describe as a relaxed, Spanish-leaning cocktail bar for the Bouldin Creek neighborhood.

Inspired by Maher’s Spanish great-grandfather, Bonifacio — known as Boni — the new concept is both personal and practical. The name nods to Boni’s colorful life: He immigrated from Spain to Argentina before settling in New Jersey, worked as a rum runner during Prohibition, made wine, played music, and grew his own food — the sort of craftsmanship that resonates deeply with the couple’s farm-driven ethos.

According to Maher, Boni’s is the first and only dedicated cocktail bar on South First Street, and its setting reinforces the sense of history. The circa-1934 bungalow-style building was originally hand-built from reused materials. Rather than overhaul it, Duplechan has led the renovation himself, preserving original windows and wood floors while layering in vintage bar furniture, black-and-white family photos of Boni, and even Duplechan’s aunt’s piano. The result, Maher says, is meant to feel timeless, but welcoming.

“It’s meant to be a comfortable neighborhood bar,” she explains. “And I think that it has its own kind of unique feeling about it.”

Warm wood covers the interior of Boni's Bar Next Door. Photo by Chad Wadsworth

That feeling is intentionally different from Lenoir’s cozy, "feminine-leaning" dining room next door.

“Boni’s is meant to be more casual, more welcoming to more people,” Maher says. “It doesn’t have to be a special occasion, necessarily, to pop in and get a drink.” Guests can swing by after work, grab an espresso after dinner at Lenoir, or settle in to watch a game on the bar’s cleverly framed flat-screen TV, designed to look old-fashioned.

“We’re building the kind of place that we want to be in," Maher says.

The cocktail menu leans Spanish but remains rooted in classics, with drinks priced between $12 and $15. Expect goblets of ginitónica, a seasonal Boni’s margarita, a carajillo with rotating spirits, a media combinación (gin and sweet vermouth), papa doble (daiquiri variation), an old fashioned with Spanish brandy and rye whiskey, and sorbete de Cava (lemon sorbet with sparkling Spanish wine). The bar will also pour curated natural Spanish wines, draft beer, and cider.

On the food side, Boni’s offers a tapas-style menu designed for snacking rather than full-on dining.

“It’s just meant to be, you’re snacking and having cocktails," Maher says, but adds with a laugh, "We're professional food service people...so the food is probably better than it needs to be."

Standouts include spiced pork rinds, a pickle bowl, oysters, soft shell crawfish chips, stewed pork meatballs, preserved whitefish with capers and lemon, shrimp and garlic with glass bread — a crunchy Catalan hallmark — and a chocolate chip cookie with dark and white chocolate and candied orange.

As South Austin continues to evolve, Maher and Duplechan see Boni’s and Lenoir as a small anchor of Old Austin charm. Their hope is to create a little farm-to-table village tucked into the neighborhood; a place where you can pop in, pop out, and feel at home.

Boni’s Bar Next Door will be open daily from 3 pm to midnight, closed Tuesdays. Free valet will be available Thursday through Saturday.