Adieu Adelberts

North Austin brewery near Q2 Stadium announces closure after 11 years

Adelbert's Brewery is closing after its landlord sold the property.

Adelbert's Brewery/Facebook

KVUE — According to the owners of Adelbert's Brewery, the small business will close at the end of October because the landlord sold the property earlier this year.

"When I went to renew my lease in [the first fiscal quarter], the landlord said, 'Oh no, we're not renewing because, you know, they're tearing down the building, so you have to be out by the end of the year,'" Scott Hovey said. "It was like a little bit of a shock to us because, you know, we were doing well with, you know, traditional lines with cool packaging, you know, soda, coffee, energy drinks for other people. And then, you know, of course, with Austin FC ... we got a lot of local traffic, you know, every game day. Finally, after 11 years, we're having some good sales years."

Hovey and his wife, Ramona, opened the brewery in 2011, naming it after Scott's late brother, Del, who passed away in 2000.

"He was an avid beer drinker and a great storyteller," Hovey said. "We just named it in honor of him."

Scott started the brewery after Ramona bought him an at-home brewing kit for Christmas one year. He jokes that he's just like every other local brewery owner.

While the area has obvious signs of redevelopment, Hovey thought he wouldn't have to sell or move for awhile.

"We knew The Domain development out here with all the office high rises and apartments, eventually it would come and consume us," Hovey remembered. "This is an old building. You know, we're just leasing here. So I knew at some point that was going to happen. I didn't expect it quite this soon. I thought I have another three to five years before it reached us."

Hovey will be closing down his brewery for good on Halloween. Despite being forced to close, the brewery staff is taking it in stride.

"Why not? You know, life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, right?" Scott said.

"We have a chance to celebrate, but how many times have we seen businesses just have to close the doors?" Ramona added. "And we wanted to celebrate these 11 years and all the people that have supported us through this."

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Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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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