Co-founders and business partners chef Mashama Bailey and Johno Morsiano are going to be closing their only Texas restaurants this summer in downtown Austin. Southern restaurant Diner Bar and casual cafe the Grey Market will have their last days inside the Thompson Austin hotel at 500 San Jacinto Boulevard on Sunday, July 14.

Diner Bar and Grey Market are closing because their host site’s parent company Hyatt Hotels is turning its restaurants into in-house operations, according to Bobby Hernandez, the general manager Diner and Grey. Or, as Hernandez writes in email: “The Thompson Hotel’s ownership is continuing to internalize all [food & beverage] operations,” a process that started earlier this year. The hotel’s revenue and reservations manager, Melina Indrasena, confirmed the last day of service.

The Thompson Austin’s switch to in-house restaurants tracks with what happened with the the downtown hotel’s other restaurant/bar, Wax Myrtle’s. It had been run by Chicago-based restaurant group Land and Sea Dept when the hotel opened in February 2022. However, the rooftop spot closed at the end of 2023, and was replaced by a new Mexican restaurant, Arriba Abajo, in March 2024.

Bailey and Morsiano opened their first-ever Texas restaurants in 2022, starting with Grey Market that March, and followed by Diner Bar that April. The restaurants, much like their other one — the original Grey in Savannah, which they opened in 2014 — are rooted in Southern and East Coast port city-style cuisines. Bailey won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2019 for the Georgia-based restaurant, and then the Outstanding Chef award in 2022.

Hernandez writes that the Grey team is focusing on their already-announced restaurant in Paris, which is aiming to open in late 2024 or early 2025.

This impending Diner Bar/Grey Market shutter is similar to another out-of-town chef’s Austin hotel shutter this year. San Antonio chef Steve McHugh had opened his first two local restaurants, Luminaire and Las Bis, inside of the Hyatt Centric Congress Avenue Austin in downtown in February 2023. Just less than a year later, the hotel and rooftop bar suddenly closed on January 1, 2024. The hotel’s statement cited that the hotel and the restaurant group “decided to part ways.”

THERE have been excessively high temperatures across the US this week and officials are calling for an air conditioning mandate. 

Americans from California and Texas across to Maryland experienced the excessive heat which could lead to risks under certain circumstances. 

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Austin’s Council member Vanessa Fuentes has called for the city to require residents to have AC 15 degrees cooler than the outside temp, Community Impact reported.

The city is nearing the building code temperature mandate being approved in July.

“Just taking one step outside will show you why we need this,” Fuentes said, per Community Impact.

“When our neighbors are collapsing from heat illness, suffering from exhaustion, and facing high wildfire risks, they’re going to need a cool place to stay.”

Dallas and Houston have temperature restrictions for residential buildings.

However, a similar legislation for mandated AC in Austin was denied in 2023.

The long-running heat wave across the US has broken multiple records and is affecting both the West and the East with dangerous temperatures.

About 36 million people, or 10% of the US population, are under an excessive heat warning, according to the National Weather Service.

The high temperatures have even hindered the operation of emergency medical helicopters, which cannot fly safely over 120 F, per the Associated Press.

HOT TEMPS

The heat is causing stress for some Americans, while others are thrilled to experience the record-breaking temps. 

Death Valley located in California receives some of the hottest temperatures in the US and people travel there for it.

Officials at Death Valley have advised people to avoid visiting the park because temperatures have been too high recently. 

“While this is a very exciting time to experience potential world record-setting temperatures in Death Valley, we encourage visitors to choose their activities carefully,” Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds said, per Associated Press.

Death Valley during the summer has always been a bucket list thing for me

Tourist Chris Kinsel

“Avoiding prolonged periods of time outside of an air-conditioned vehicle or building when temperatures are this high,” he continued. 

Some visitors, like Chris Kinsel and Tracy Housley, expressed excitement about experiencing extreme temperatures despite the risks.

“Death Valley during the summer has always been a bucket list thing for me,” Kinsel said, per AP News.

‘For most of my life, I’ve wanted to come out here in summertime.”

“We just thought, let’s be there for that,” Housley said.

“Let’s go for the experience.”

AUSTIN (The Texas Tribune) — President Joe Biden will deliver remarks at Austin’s Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library on July 15 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, a White House official confirmed on Sunday.

The visit is the first of three stops in three days, starting in Austin, then onto Las Vegas where Biden will speak at the 115th NAACP National Convention on July 16 and then the following day at the UnidosUS annual conference, described as one of the largest gatherings of Latinos in the country.

His appearance in Austin coincides with the opening day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Republicans will discuss their party platform and formally nominate Trump.

The trips to Texas and Nevada follow Biden’s poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump on June 27. The president’s fumbles led some Congressional Democrats, starting with U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, to call on Biden to withdraw from the race for president.

Doggett was not immediately available on Sunday to comment on Biden’s upcoming visit to Texas.

The LBJ Presidential Library has not yet released a statement about the president’s visit but has confirmed the event. On July 2, 1964, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law, which barred discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. Biden plans to discuss his administration’s “progress advancing civil rights and his vision to ensure the promise of America for all communities,” according to White House staff.

In 2014, U.S. presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter visited Austin for a three-day summit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Biden’s remarks at the NAACP national convention in Las Vegas will focus on his administration’s efforts to advance racial justice, according to a statement from the White House.

Growing numbers of Democrats, including in Texas, have expressed concern that Biden could cost them their seats in November. The president has engaged in a series of campaign stops to try to quell Democrats’ concerns about whether Biden is fit for another term in office. Biden would be 86 by the end of a second term.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/07/07/texas-joe-biden-lbj-library/.