Austin, TX

Miami Doughnut Shop Chain’s Expanding Into Austin’s Domain Northside

Published

1 year ago

July 12, 2024

Miami Doughnut Shop Chain’s Expanding Into Austin’s Domain Northside

Miami-based bakery chain the Salty Donut is going to be opening its second Austin location in the Domain Northside at some point. It’ll be found at 11501 Rock Rose Avenue, Suite 158. The doughnut shop is known for its decadent doughnuts with cake and brioche bases. The chain’s first Austin location opened in the Bouldin Creek neighborhood on South Congress in August 2021.

Downtown hotel cocktail pop-up

Downtown Austin hotel the Four Seasons is running a pop-up cocktail bar this summer. The Hidden Flask, which will be found at the Congressional Suite room, will open on Saturday, June 13. The bar will serve Local aged liqueurs, infused spirits, and food; and the space will feature ice columns, interactive art, DJs at night, and more. $25 reservations can be booked online.

Central Texas brewery beer medal winners

The winners of the U.S. Open Beer Competition were announced this week, and, as per usual, there’s a bunch of Central Texas brewery winners. Those include:

Marble Falls brewery Save the World Brewing Co. (gold for its Chasing Broncos and bronze for its Hunt for Hazy in the New England/July IPA category)
Austin’s Infamous Brewing Company (silver for its Sally Skull in the Pink Boots Hops Blend slot and gold for its Dye-It pils in German Leichtbier)
the Round Rock location of Flix Brewhouse (gold for its Kutia in the Foreign Stout group and silver for its Cosmic Spice in the American Fruit Wheat category)
Austin brewery St. Elmo Brewing Co. (silver for its Vaughn in the German-style Pilsners and silver for its Baby in the Barrel-aged American Barleywine area)
Driftwood brewery Vista Brewing (bronze for its Dark Skies in the American-style Dark Lager section)
Fredericksburg brewery Altstadt Brewery (silver for its radler in the American Fruit – Peach group)
Johnson City brewery Old 290 Brewery (silver for its All Ryte All Ryte in the Rye Beer slot)

Frozen sweets collaboration

Austin bakery Cookie Wookie is collaborating with Asian Southern restaurant the Peached Tortilla’s Cedar Park location for a summer bingsu special. The frozen sweet is made with a pandan condensed milk shaved ice with little pandan cookies, plus mochi, toasted coconuts, and puffed rice. It’s available through August 9.

The Cookie Wookie and Peached Tortilla bingsu.

Courtesy of Jon Scotty

Tracking Austin food and drink events

East Austin bar Kitty Cohen’s is celebrating its eighth birthday with a party this weekend. There will be $8 cocktail specials and frozen drinks, one dollar Jell-O, food by pop-up Parish Barbecue, and a DJ set at night. It takes place on Saturday, July 13 from noon to 2 a.m.

There’s been a last-minute addition to Central East Austin brunch restaurant Paperboy’s baker pop-up series. Chestnut bakery Comadre Panaderia’s Mariela Camacho will have her and her team’s baked goods at the restaurant’s pastry case, which will include pink cake, conchas, and the corn in a cup croissant. It’s available on Sunday, July 14 starting at 8 a.m.

McKinney neighborhood brewery Meanwhile Brewing Co. is hosting a party with Mexican restaurant Nixta Taqueria this weekend in honor of its Mexican lager. It takes place on Sunday, July 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The restaurant will serve duck tacos and also collaborate with on-site truck Side Eye Pie on a pizza with poached tuna conserva, poblano crema, roasted calabrian peppers, olives, and salsa macha. Guests will get a free beer, and then there will be free duck tacos for the first 50 guests.

Austin seafood restaurant Garbo’s is embarking on a young chef series, where participants will offer a dish every Sunday in July at the 626 North Lamar Boulevard location at 2 p.m. The first one takes place on July 14 with Mexican restaurant Bacalar chef de cuisine B. Loza, who is making lobster pambazo. Then there’s Garbo owner Heidi Garbo’s son Conner Garbo on July 21, with Korean fried lobster bao buns; and then Southern restaurant Olamaie chef Manuel Acuna on July 28 with fried snapper tortas.

Mexican restaurant Chapulin Cantina is hosting monthly mezcal dinners starting this month. The three-course meals will be paired with mezcals from different producers each time. The first one takes place on Monday, July 15 at 7 p.m. with Oaxacan-based the Lost Explorer with dishes like lamb brisket and verde-grilled fish. Tickets are $100.

Source link

Click to comment

Austin, TX

Taylor residents sue to halt proposed data center

Published

15 hours ago

November 27, 2025

Press Room

Taylor residents sue to halt proposed data center

TAYLOR, Texas — A proposed data center in Central Texas is getting a lot of pushback from residents. Approximately 40 minutes north of Austin, a group of neighbors in the city of Taylor sued the data center. They are pushing back against the data center that could soon be under construction roughly 500 feet from their neighborhood.

“This property is supposed to be deeded for parkland,” said Pamela Griffin, a resident in the neighborhood next to where the data center will be built. “This land was given to this community.”

The 87-acre land near Griffin’s community is embroiled in a legal battle between her and Blueprint Data Centers.

“We do not need a data center,” Griffin said. “I’m not against them, but we don’t need them in our community.”

Despite Griffin’s land deed lawsuit, a Texas judge has ruled in favor of the proposed project.

“When a judge dismisses a lawsuit because the plaintiff or the plaintiffs lack standing, what the judge means is you’re not a person who has the legal authority to bring this lawsuit,” said Mike Golden, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Griffin and other neighbors argue the data center will take away natural resources like water and what was supposed to be the future site of a park, so her fight is not over.

“We are going to the appellate court now,” Griffin said. “We did file.”

Griffin is passionate about advocating for the community because it’s the neighborhood she was born and raised in. Her grandmother bought property there in the early 1960s, and the community became a safe haven for Black people in Taylor.

“We weren’t allowed to be in the city limits at that time because they would not sell to the Black and brown community, so my grandmother realized they had to buy land outside,” she said.

She worries about the future of her small community now that construction of a 135,000-square-foot data center will begin within the next year.

It’s a project the city says will bring millions in revenue to Taylor.

“What data centers do to a community is it brings an influx of new revenue to all the taxing entities, including the city, the county and especially the school district,” said Ben White, the president and CEO of the Taylor Economic Development Corporation.

He explained how the revenue might benefit the city.

“City council will have the ultimate say on how those revenues are spent, but it could involve new parks for citizens, improve streets for the citizens, improve programs for the citizens,” he said. “There’ll be a lot of variety of different uses of those funds the council could decide to use them on.”

White also addressed the controversy surrounding the deed when asked about it by Spectrum News.

“We feel comfortable that EDC, we did everything correctly on our side,” he said.

Griffin now awaits the Third Court of Appeals to decide on her case.

“I’m asking for the community and the Taylor people to stick together and understand my fight against this data center coming into our community,” Griffin said.

Source link

Austin, TX

How history has treated Texas Longhorns when underdogs against Aggies

Published

1 day ago

November 26, 2025

Press Room

How history has treated Texas Longhorns when underdogs against Aggies

Even before the invention of color television, savvy businesspeople were using the Texas versus Texas A&M football rivalry to bring patrons through the door.

Back in 1940, movie theaters made front-page news by offering Texans an opportunity to relive that year’s Lone Star Showdown.

Article continues below this ad

“UT To Beat A&M All Over Again,” read a small headline on the Nov. 29 edition of the Austin Statesman. The brief news story called the Longhorns’ victory “better drama than the fictional screen ever unfolded,” and declared that movie-goers would be treated to supplemental scenes from Texas’ 7-0 win over the Aggies on Nov. 28.

Texas Longhorns defensive back Jelani McDonald (4) yells in celebration after making an interception in the third quarter of the Longhorns’ game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Darrell K Royal Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Nov. 22, 2025.

Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman

The unlikely nature of Texas’ victory helped fuel that over-the-top public response. Scoring the only points of the game on their first drive, the Longhorns snapped a 19-game Texas A&M winning streak, unseated the defending national champions and denied the Aggies a place in the Rose Bowl.

For just the second time since that Thanksgiving day in 1940, Texas A&M is coming to Austin in 2025 with a perfect record. A place in the SEC championship game, which the Aggies have never participated in since joining the conference in 2012, is at stake.

Article continues below this ad

The Longhorns are underdogs, the bookmakers say. Most popular sportsbooks made Texas A&M a 2.5-point favorite heading into Friday’s clash at Royal-Memorial Stadium. Texas’ players aren’t exactly in a rush to adopt that narrative, though.

NO. 16 TEXAS VS. NO. 3 TEXAS A&M

When/where: 6:30 p.m. Friday at Royal-Memorial Stadium.

TV/radio: ABC; 1300 AM, 1370 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM (Spanish)

“I think we know what we’re capable of,” Texas defensive end Ethan Burke said. “Who does the sportsbooks? Have they ever played college football? Probably not.”

Article continues below this ad

Burke won’t be the only Longhorn unaccustomed to viewing the Aggies as the favorites in this longstanding rivalry. Texas holds a 77-37-5 all-time advantage over Texas A&M in the series, which dates all the way back to 1894. Texas has won 10 of the 13 matchups played this century, including last year’s tilt in College Station.

MORE: How Longhorns used Arch Manning differently against Arkansas

But, throughout history, the Longhorns have occasionally shown up to the Lone Star Showdown looking to spoil Texas A&M’s fun, as they did back in 1940.

On 28 occasions, the Aggies have entered rivalry week with at least two more victories on their ledger than Texas. When that is the case, Texas holds a 10-16-2 record. Its most recent victory under those circumstances came in 1998, when Ricky Williams broke the NCAA’s all-time rushing yards record with a 60-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

Article continues below this ad

Texas Longhorns receiver DeAndre Moore Jr. (0) gets into a verbal argument with Texas A&M defensive back Will Lee III (26) during the Lone Star Showdown at Kyle Field on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024 in College Station, Texas.

Aaron E. Martinez/American-Statesman

That year, the 7-3 Longhorns built a 23-7 lead over the 10-1 Aggies, but saw A&M break off 17 unanswered points to take a one-point lead with 2:20 remaining. That necessitated some heroics from quarterback Major Applewhite and kicker Kris Stockton, who booted through a 24-yard field goal with five seconds remaining for the win.

In recent history, that’s just about the only upset success the Longhorns have managed over the Aggies. Since 1960, Texas A&M is 11-1 against Texas when entering Thanksgiving week with two or more victories than Texas. Coaches Jackie Sherrill and RC Slocum routinely bested some bad Texas teams. Between 1986 and Mack Brown’s hiring before the 1998 season, the Longhorns lost five or more games nine times.

MORE: Why Longhorns appealed targeting call on Ty’Anthony Smith

Article continues below this ad

Before 1960, though, Texas often upset A&M teams with records that looked better on paper, holding a 9-5-2 mark against Aggies teams that held at least a two-game advantage in the win column. In 1938, a winless Texas team turned up at Memorial Stadium and beat the middling Aggies 7-6.

“Not a handful of fans, huddled against the autumn chill inside the huge horseshoe where an Aggie team had never won, dreamed it could happen,” the Austin American’s Weldon Hart wrote in the next day’s edition.

This year’s Longhorns don’t face the same odds. Texas, at 8-3, was the preseason’s No. 1-ranked team and has already beaten two top-10 foes on the year.

Article continues below this ad

Upsetting the unbeaten Aggies won’t require a miracle, but it would certainly make a lasting memory.

“We’ve got to prepare really well so we can play our best football,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian said. “Because our best football will be needed next Friday night.”

Source link