Farm to Dish

Houston-to-Austin café Dish Society follows big debut with second location

Dish Society is opening a second Austin location.

Photo by Julie Soefer

Houston transplant Dish Society debuted in Austin in December of 2023 and was immediately packed with enthusiastic brunchers. It's not much of a surprise given that reception — and its founder's Austin background — that the folks behind it are opening a second Austin location in early 2025.

The first Austin location landed in the Mueller neighborhood (1900 Aldrich St., Ste. 130), and the new one is going south to 1600 South First St., Ste. 110. It is taking the place of Picnik, a similarly brunch-focused cafe that specialized in healthy, but hearty and indulgent food.

Founder and CEO Aaron Lyons is from Austin and graduated from the University of Texas, but he launched the all-day café in Houston in 2014. Key in the fast-casual restaurant's purpose are affordability and freshness — selections flip-flop between classic diner foods like BLTs, burgers, and egg breakfasts, and some more "health food"-aligned choices like cold-pressed juice, mocktails, and choose-your-own plates with a protein and two sides.

The menu is full of grain bowls and salads, but some of the most popular items are beignets, pancakes, and fried chicken sandwiches. It'll also shift seasonally.

Dish Society fried chicken Fried chicken is healthy, emotionally speaking.

Local sourcing is an important element, and more than 75 percent of hospitality group Five 12's ingredients are sourced from Texas. The group also recently acquired recipes from the now-closed Katy bakery Proud Pie, and is currently serving State Fair Caramel Apple pies and other varieties.

“South Austin is really vibrant and booming,” said Lyons in a press release. “We love its proximity to Downtown and other areas like South Congress, South Lamar and Zilker Park. It’s a good central locale with great restaurants and a lot of biking and walking, which attracts the type of folks that tend to be our fans. As always, we want to be that accessible neighborhood spot you can visit multiple times a week.”

Cocktails at Dish Society Guests can hang out at the full-service bar for a cocktail, a meal, or both.Photo by Julie Soefer

The restaurant will take up 3500 square feet underneath condos and next to the popular shoe store, Blue Suede. The release promises "light updates and renovations" to the space that Picnik left. Once finished, it'll seat 80 guests indoors and 40-50 outside on a partially-covered patio.

It'll be easy to accommodate both long visits and quick pick-ups, with validated parking in the garage below and a walk-up window for takeout. Even diners who are sticking around will order their food at a counter. An espresso bar also accommodates a quick stop.

“It really couldn’t be a better situation for us,” said Lyons.

Dish Society strawberry watermelon salad Even lighter dishes like this strawberry-watermelon salad have a lot of flair.Photo by Julie Soefer

Five 12 is hiring for all its locations, with an emphasis on cross-training and benefits like tuition reimbursement, paid volunteer hours, PTO for hourly staff, and more. There are four Dish Society locations in Houston, plus one sister restaurant, Daily Gather.

Dish Society will be open Sundays through Thursdays from 7 am to 9 pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 7 am to 10 pm. Social hour (like happy hour) takes place weekdays from 7-9 am and 2-6 pm, and weekends from 4-6 pm. Dish Society will also offer catering and accept online orders for takeout and delivery including via DoorDash, Favor, and Uber Eats. More information is available at dishsociety.com.

openings fast-casual brunch sandwiches burgers tacos breakfast healthy farm to table

Back to the Plow

Homey Austin jam and bake shop closing and returning to farmers market

Confituras/Instagram

Confituras Little Kitchen is closing its brick-and-mortar store, but feeling optimistic about the future.

A famers market find is returning to its natural environment after six years in a brick-and-mortar location. Confituras Little Kitchen, which specializes in locally sourced preserves, is closing its jam and biscuit shop after service on Sunday, December 22. However, it will continue selling goods at the Barton Creek Farmers Market and via retailers.

Confituras announced the change in a newsletter to its customers in December. The letter called the news "bittersweet."

"Although the brick and mortar will no longer be, the good news is that this will be a fresh new start for us – we are bursting with energy and creativity at the thought of being back out in the community where it all started for confituras," it said.

The kitchen is closing because the lease is up, and the team has decided to "give up the chase." The newsletter emphasized the ups-and-downs of business over the past several years — ones that were chaotic for just about any business, let alone a small, fairly niche food operation.

"So much has happened since we decided to open a brick + mortar – a wonderful kickstarter fundraiser, THE PANDEMIC, the AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC, and an ever growing city," the letter says. "We tried so very hard but never really got our footing. We know we are not alone, many small business are in the same boat. We renewed our lease during the pandemic because we were hopeful we could make it work - the changing times had other ideas."

Finally, it shared how customers could keep enjoying Confituras creations:

The Barton Creek Farmers Market is open at 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
A list on confituras.net compiles retailers including Royal Blue Grocery, Farmhouse Delivery, and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.
Jam share and Table22 subscription customers will have more instructions coming soon about picking up their goods in January at the same space, 2129 Goodrich Ave.
Customers may also reach out to inquire about continuing to order meals directly.

The kitchen also hosted frequent events and workshops, but the letter did not address this aspect of the business.

A shorter message shared on Instagram has inspired 63 comments so far, five days later. Customers eulogized the shop for its community feel and providing a sense of regularity during the height of the pandemic thanks to weekend pick-ups.