Italian Cafe Uncle Nicky’s Opens in South Austin With Pastas and Spritzes

An Austin Italian cafe is finally opening its South Austin expansion this month. Uncle Nicky’s will open in the South Lamar neighborhood at 2121 South Lamar Boulevard starting on Saturday, June 22.

The South Austin Uncle Nicky’s will function in the same way as its original Hyde Park counterpart, both from co-owners Nic Yanes (Italian restaurant Juniper) and Travis Tober (neighborhood bar Nickel City, the forthcoming hotel pool bar Swim Club).

Expect a fast-casual service with an all-day casual food and drinks menu. For dishes, expect sandwiches like the breakfast sandwich made with Taylor ham, fried egg, cheese, and ketchup served on a kaiser roll; or the roasted porchetta. Then there are pastas like the baked pepperoni rigatoni and the vegetarian lasagna, and snacks like stuffed peppers and pesto artichoke hearts. The cafe also serves what it calls daily brunch (aka breakfast) with items like small ricotta pancakes and the Eggs Nicky, with poached eggs, prosciutto, a fontina hollandaise, and focaccia. Desserts include vanilla custards with flavor options, cannolis, and tiramisu.

The Italian cafe-style extends into the drinks, with loads of negronis, spritzes, and espresso cocktails. There’s a take on the negroni, the Tropic Thunder, with a coconut-washed rum, Aperol, banana liqueur, sweet vermouth, and tiki bitters; its Uncle Nicky’s Spritz, with gin, an herbal liqueur, a grapefruit cordial, and prosecco; the Oaxacan Espresso with a coco nib-infused mezcal, a Spanish vanilla liqueur, a bitter coffee liqueur, espresso, and mint; and the Garibaldi with frozen Campari and fluffy orange juice. There are also coffees, wines, and beers.

Yanes and Tober opened the first Uncle Nicky’s in 2019 in the Hyde Park neighborhood, taking over what had been gelato shop Dolce Vita. They expanded into Central East Austin within the former Hotel Eleven-now Frances Modern Inn in 2020, but shuttered it in late 2022 with the goal of reopening elsewhere in South Austin. They announced this South Lamar location in July 2024. Yanes and Tober also work together at New York-styled bar Murray’s Tavern, which opened in late 2023.

Uncle Nicky’s South Lamar hours will be from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.