The Biggest Austin Restaurant News This Month, May 2025
Catch up on each month's most exciting food and dining news in this Eater Austin column. 5) Texas Wine Country Confronts the Challenges of Its Boozy Boom
Famed for its German heritage and rolling hills, Texas Hill Country is best known for its wine. Considered the region's crown jewel, Fredericksburg started with just three wineries in the 1970s and has since blossomed, experiencing one of its most significant booms in tourism over the last five years, says Brady Closson, the CEO of Fredericksburg Convention and Visitor Bureau. Today, the city has more than 80 wineries and generates the second-highest revenue in wine tourism dollars in the country, falling just behind California's Napa Valley, Closson adds. But with more than 3 million people visiting each year and its designation as the second-most visited wine destination in the U.S., residents are feeling the effects. Locals say some visitors are drinking a little too much while visiting wine country. 4) Highly Opinionated: The Best THC Drinks in Austin
While the future of THC drinks in Austin is up in the air — for now — THC products are still available throughout Austin. Eater sleuthed out which Austin coffee shops, bars, food trucks, and cafes serve THC products and taste-tested 14 different drinks. Here's a final list of the best of Austin's THC offerings, including everything from fruity seltzers with a mild buzz to a creamy latte that nearly knocked writer Lane Gillespie off his feet. 3) This San Antonio Taco Shop Is Closing After 63 Years, Plus More Austin Restaurant Closings to Know Right Now
Another month means, sadly, another restaurant closing. This month brings a handful, including the departure of a hotel restaurant, a non-alcoholic bottle shop, and a Jewish deli. Fortunately, some of these establishments are giving diners time to say goodbye. For Northeastern Thai and Laos food truck Dee Dee, it's just a see-you-soon, since they're opening a brick-and-mortar at the forthcoming Leona Botanical Café and Bar later this summer. 2) In Texas, Omakase Is Performance Art
Rather than working in a traditional kitchen where chefs are hidden behind doors, free to yell at servers and accidentally set things on fire, the omakase chef remains inches away from diners, facilitating conversation, slicing fish, and preparing bites under close scrutiny. But how do these chefs learn and manage the special skills unique to their craft, along with the performance art aspect of the service? Eater contributor Erin Russell interviewed omakase chefs across the Lone Star State to find out. 1) Where to Eat at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA)
Summer is basically here, and that means people are flying in and out of Austin. Fortunately, the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is a dining destination on its own, offering samples of the city with its many food vendors, including local favorites like Amy's Ice Creams, East Side Pies pizzeria, Hut's Hamburgers, South Asian-fusion restaurant the Peached Tortilla, and barbecue icon the Salt Lick BBQ. In Case You Missed It:
Need more travel inspiration? Here are some of Eater's recent maps pointing you to the best restaurants in tourist destinations, including Dripping Springs, Round Top, Fredericksburg, and all of Hill Country. Check out our recent guide to Fredericksburg, and if all else fails, get some ice cream.
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2 hours ago
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Texas lawmakers to allow smaller homes on smaller lots
Texas lawmakers have sent a scaled-back zoning proposal to allow smaller homes on smaller lots to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk — a bid to put a dent in the state's high home prices. Lawmakers in the Texas House and Senate passed Senate Bill 15 this weekend after the proposal to give builders the flexibility to build smaller houses in the state's largest cities kicked up heat from House Democrats, who repeatedly tried to kill the bill. The Senate approved the bill by a unanimous vote Saturday. The bill was more controversial in the House, where lawmakers endorsed the latest version by a slimmer 78-57 vote Sunday. The bill found bipartisan support in the House, where a majority of Democrats and Republicans voted in favor. 'These are homes your employees, your kids and grandkids can afford,' said state Rep. Gary Gates, a Richmond Republican who carried the bill in the House. SB 15's passage caps off a session in which lawmakers passed an array of bills intended to tackle the state's high housing costs, primarily by cutting local regulations and red tape in order to allow more homes to be built. Texas needs hundreds of thousands more homes than it has, according to one estimate. That shortage, housing advocates and experts have argued, played a key role in driving up Texas home prices and rents as the state boomed. This year, state lawmakers sought to mitigate that shortage with a package of bills that would supersede local zoning ordinances and reduce other hurdles to building homes. Among the most far-reaching proposals they sent to Abbott would make it harder for residents to stop new homes from being built and allow apartments and mixed-use developments in more places, like retail and commercial corridors, in the state's largest cities. SB 15, a top priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the Senate, aims to force the state's biggest cities to allow smaller homes on smaller lots in some places. Doing so gives homebuilders more latitude when it comes to the size of homes they're allowed to build. Homes on smaller lots have generally been found to be less expensive than homes on bigger ones, research has shown. The bill bars major cities from requiring homes in new subdivisions to sit on more than 3,000 square feet. That's down from 1,400 square feet, which the Senate initially pitched. The state's biggest cities often require single-family homes to sit on around 5,000 to 7,500 square feet of land, a Texas Tribune analysis found. SB 15 doesn't touch existing neighborhoods, and only would apply in new subdivisions with at least five acres of land. If Abbott signs it, the bill would only apply to cities with at least 150,000 residents in counties with a population of 300,000 or more. Some 19 of the state's largest cities fit that criterion, per a Tribune analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. It also wouldn't apply in cases in which homeowners association and restrictive covenants prevent smaller lot sizes. The proposal spurred a lot of drama in the last days of the legislative session. The idea of the state telling cities what kinds of homes they can allow didn't sit well with a contingent of House Democrats, who tried repeatedly to kill the bill on procedural grounds or gut it. They and some Republicans argued local residents wouldn't get a chance to weigh in on new development resulting from the bill if it passed. 'Leave it up to the cities that know what's best for their city,' state Rep. Ramon Romero, D-Worth, said. Romero successfully amended the bill on the House floor last week so the bill would only apply if cities adopted a new zoning category that allowed homes to the smaller lot size outlined in the bill. That provision would have effectively rendered the bill useless, the bill's proponents argued. House and Senate lawmakers ripped that amendment out of the bill in negotiations between the two chambers. House Democrats had railed against the bill — taking seemingly contradictory approaches. Romero argued that homes built on smaller lots wouldn't necessarily be cheaper. Meanwhile, state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, questioned Gates last week about whether the bill would create 'future ghettos.' Some Republicans, too, objected. State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, an Arlington Republican considered one of the House's most conservative members, argued the bill would eventually lead to higher crime in places that saw homes on smaller lots. Other bills lawmakers sent to Abbott aimed to make it easier to convert vacant office buildings into residences and would force cities to allow manufactured homes. They also relaxed local rules in college towns that say how many unrelated adults can live in a home. Other ideas to allow more homes died quietly this session. A proposal to make it easier to build additional dwelling units in the backyards of single-family homes, which died in the House two years ago, missed a key deadline last week and died before it could come up for a vote. Another idea to allow houses of worship to build homes on their land never made it to the House or Senate floor. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
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5 hours ago
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Germany issues invitation to culture and nature on World Heritage Day
The Wadden Sea, Cologne Cathedral and the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen have one thing in common: They have been designated as World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, marking them as places of exceptional value to all of humanity. There are now 54 World Heritage Sites in Germany, and, for the 20th time, the German UNESCO Commission invited people to these protected sites with a variety of activities for World Heritage Day on Sunday. "The aim of the day of action is to make World Heritage accessible to everyone," German UNESCO Commission President Maria Böhmer said at a ceremony in St Michael's Church in the northern German city of Hildesheim. The World Heritage Day was opened there under the motto "Convey, Connect, Enthuse." It is a "very beautiful, colourful, lively festival," a spokesman said on Sunday afternoon. The Romanesque cathedral and St Michael's Church in the approximately 1,200-year-old city have been World Cultural Heritage sites since 1985. According to UNESCO, more than 350 events are on the programme across Germany. These range from a torchlight tour for children through the caves of the Swabian Jura to a mining adventure hike in the Ore Mountains and a rap tour through Hamburg's Speicherstadt. There are now more than 1,200 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 168 countries worldwide, and the list expands every year. Already nominated are Germany's castles of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Schachen and Herrenchiemsee. The World Heritage Committee is expected to decide in July whether they will be added to the World Heritage list. In the meantime, some World Heritage Sites are transnational. Germany's Ancient Beech Forests were added to the list in 2011 as an extension of the Carpathian Beech Forests, which span 18 countries in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The Wadden Sea, on the edge of the North Sea, was included in 2009 and extended in 2014 to include the Danish Wadden Sea. In the German state of Lower Saxony, the Rammelsberg Mine, the old town of Goslar in the Harz, and the Upper Harz Water Management System can also boast the title. The Fagus Factory in Alfeld, Lower Saxony, designed in 1911 by architect and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, has been on the World Heritage list since 2011.
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5 hours ago
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German minister: Services must be considered in tariff row with US
The European Union wants to include services in the tariff dispute with the United States to persuade US President Donald Trump to relent, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Sunday. "We want to focus not only on the exchange of goods and products but also on services. And if you look at the whole spectrum, then the exchange between the United States of America and the European Union is quite balanced," Wadephul explained on German public broadcaster ZDF. "And if you take that into account, I believe we have good conditions to reach a reasonable conclusion." The chairman of the Trade Committee in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange, had also hinted at this. The EU has a trade deficit with the US in services, Lange pointed out. This is mainly due to the high demand in Europe for the offerings of US digital companies like Google and Meta. Trump justifies his tariff policy by stating that the US has a trade deficit in goods with the EU. Trump recently also announced a doubling of tariffs on aluminium and steel imports to 50%. A spokesman for the European Commission threatened countermeasures over the weekend.
