Maine stream

Neighborhood lobster shack catches new location in Dripping Springs

Texas seafood fans won't have to travel to Maine to grab a lobster roll.

Photo courtesy of Star Chefs

Feast your eyes on this delicious news: Garbo's Lobster, a family-owned and Austin-based restaurant, is opening its third location in Dripping Springs in early 2024. The new brick-and-mortar restaurant and accompanying Connor's Creamery food trailer will be located at 136 Drifting Wind Run.

Garbo's is well-known for its delectable New England-inspired fare, including its signature East Coast oysters, lobster rolls, caviar, and more. The beloved restaurant began its decade-long history as a food truck by sisters Heidi, Samantha, and Hannah Garbo.

The first Garbo's brick-and-mortar was located in Wells Branch in 2014, before settling on its current home base in North Austin. Its second location on North Lamar near downtown Austin opened earlier in 2023. A Garbo's food truck can be found roaming the city throughout the month.

In a release, owner Heidi Garbo expressed her admiration and love for the Hill Country suburb for its distinctive "charm and character," while adding that those qualities are becoming harder to find in Austin proper.

"Dripping Springs embodies the charm and vibrant community spirit that aligns perfectly with our vision," said Garbo. "In a rapidly growing Austin, where great food is becoming oversaturated, Dripping Springs represents an underserved market for exceptional cuisine. It's close enough to Austin to capture the vibrant city vibe, but far enough away to truly enjoy the serene setting and the warmth of the local community."

The new restaurant will have an expanded raw bar, can seat 150 hungry patrons, and will feature two event spaces for special dinners, events, or happy hours. Beverage director Josh Loving will be in charge of the "carefully curated" wine program. Connor's Creamery, one of Austin's few soft-serve vendors, will be situated right next to the restaurant.

An official opening date and operating hours have not been confirmed, but you'll catch us waiting in line to grab a table either way.

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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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