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A Cajun cookout and eclipse deals shine light on Austin food

Uptown Sports Club is celebrating its first anniversary with friends.

Photo by Nick Simonite

A celestial event is coming in Texas, and everyone and their line cook is jumping on it. Restaurants are also feeling spring in the air with lots of openings, new menus, and more expansions to their normal service. There's much to do this week!

Openings and closings

A newcomer restaurant from the East Coast is offering an arrangement of regional references. Coming to Austin from New York City, bringing Australia- and American Midwest-inspired retro basement vibes, the Flower Shop is as much aesthetic as anything. The excellent pub food, however, received nods from 2019-2021 from the Michelin Guide as a Bib Gourmand pick — close to a star, but more like an honorable mention. Besides a TDLR listing permitting construction, the restaurant has relegated its Austin visibility thus far to one Eater profile.

Fresh Maine lobster may have been hard to come by in the Texas Hill Country, but things are changing now that a new Garbo's Lobster is open in Dripping Springs (136 Drifting Wind Run). Although the lobster makes quite a journey to the plate, the restaurant itself is from Austin. This is the third Garbo's location, where it will continue serving lobster rolls, oysters, caviar, and other casual dishes like fries, salads, and clam chowder. Operating hours are Wednesday through Thursday from 4:30-9 pm, Friday and Saturday from 4:30-10 pm, and Sunday from 4:30-9 pm.

A quality-minded coffee shop that's only open until the afternoon is apparently finding new success in Austin. Fleet Coffee, a local business that's been around since 2016, has taken Caffé Medici's former downtown space (804 Congress Ave.). Its second existing location opened in 2023 — making this the third — perhaps marking a period of accelerated growth. The indoor seating that Medici utilized has been nixed, and instead this will be for to-go or patio drinkers only. The creative coffee house will serve coffee, tea, and creative specialty drinks like espresso mocktails. Operating hours are 8 am to 3 pm daily.

ICYMI: Austin is not precious about keeping cuisines distinct, so a new collaboration between Thai food truck Dee Dee and taco truck Veracruz All Natural, called Leona, should fit right in. Another collaboration, but this one between independent hospitality vets, called Casa Bianca, is also taking shape with slightly Japanese-tinged Italian-American food. If all this variety is getting you in a sampling mood, we're one week away from the CultureMap's Tastemaker Awards in Austin on April 11. Our editorial series has recently profiled Austin's best bartenders, rising star chefs, and pastry chefs, with more coming before the big day.

Other news and notes

Several local restaurants have announced new service times and menus: popular new Chinese restaurantRedFarm is now serving lunch on Fridays and offering happy hour deals from 4-6 pm on weekdays. Jinya Ramen Bar is also joining in on the joy with its own happy hour all day every Monday in April. Retro dinerToasty Badger is now offering dinner with comfort food staples like chicken pot pie and chili with cornbread dumplings. Finally Hotel Van Zandt rooftop restaurantGeraldine's has shared its new spring menu featuring things like birria wontons and tiger prawns with Calabrian chili butter.

It's hard to believe Uptown Sports Club — already a cozy community staple — is only one year old. Guests are invited to celebrate the anniversary with the Aaron Franklin-headed New Orleans-inspired eatery on April 6. Guest chefs Sarah McIntosh of Épicerie and Todd Duplechan of Lenoir are coming over to make a crawfish boil and jambalaya, respectively. There will also be deals on some regular menu items like burgers and po' boys. The party starts at 11 am and discounts end at 3 pm. The backyard cajun offerings are available only until they sell out. Parties of 6-12 can reserve on OpenTable.

In case you haven't heard (we know you have), Austin is in the path of totality for the solar eclipse on April 8. Here are some restaurants offering special deals:

We'll add more to this list if we hear more! Check back later.

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Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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