Here's a look at new Austin eateries, drinking spots, hotels, conference areas, private rooms, and other spaces to open for events this spring. The new and renovated Austin venues are available for corporate parties, weddings, fund-raisers, outdoor functions, business dinners, teambuilding activities, conferences, meetings, and more.
The Brewer’s Table opened its brewery and restaurant in the former Quonset hut in East Austin in April. The semi-cylindrical space features the namesake brewer’s table on the mezzanine floor that acts as the restaurant’s chef’s table for 14 guests. Outside is the beer garden with a live fire cooking area, games including a bocce ball court, and a garden for the restaurant’s usage. Among the seasonal menu with dishes like smoked rabbit carnitas and aged pork ribs, are the rotating shareable feasts like hog cooked four different ways to whole roasted and smoked cauliflower heads. The 5,000-square-foot space has seating for 100 inside and 50 outside.
Now the largest hotel in downtown Austin, the 1,048-room Fairmont Austin opened downtown in early March. With nearly 140,000 of event space, the hotel includes the nearly 26,000-square-foot Congressional Ballroom, which seats 2,800 theater-style or 2,000 at rounds and can be split into three sections. The property's five restaurants include the grillhouse Garrison along with a food court, Revue, where offerings vary from pasta to Asian food. On the seventh floor is the pool, where there are private cabanas set up with television screens and coolers. There's also poolside event space with an outdoor area and stage. The spa features nine treatment rooms, solariums with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out onto Austin, and two suites for couples. The solariums include saline soaking pools, dry heat saunas, and eucalyptus steam grottos. Important for meeting planners, the elevated Red River Canopy Walk connects the building to the Austin Convention Center.
After intensive renovations, the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center debuted its revamped ballroom and meeting spaces in January. There are nine new meeting rooms that connect to the center through a walkway. The new Zlotnik Family Ballroom, covering 15,000 square feet, features skylights and a separate pre-event space with a mural from artist Jose Parla. The ballroom seats 1,600 guests theater-style or 1,000 for banquets. Overall, the conference center has 80,000 square feet of meeting space, including 53 meeting rooms. The venue is owned by the University of Texas.
Parkside Projects turned a former French restaurant into a spacious indoor/outdoor event venue, 7Co. The 2,500-square-foot interior space features a bar as well as details like tall windows and globe lighting. The venue also includes a fenced-in 15,000-square-foot yard and 1,250 square feet of terrace space. On-site catering is available from the restaurant group. Plus there is furniture rental, audiovisual capabilities, valet parking, and Wi-Fi. The venue seats 150 or holds 200 for a reception.
Austin Eastciders Collaboratory, the cidery's East Austin production facility, features its first tasting room. The 1,960-square-foot space allows Eastciders to test out experimental ciders with the community. Garage doors separate the indoor and outdoor spaces, which feature communal seating. The dog-friendly patio includes games like cornhole and darts. The venue holds 200 overall inside and outside, and opened in November.
Downtown craft cocktail bar Academia focuses on expertly made cocktails in a space meant to resemble an Ivy League faculty lounge. Opened in March by former Bar Rescue co-star Russell Davis, the venue is meant to exude the perfect drinking conditions, from customizable lights and ambient scents to music that syncs up with guests’ heartbeats. The 2,200-square-foot space holds about 150 people and is available for full or partial buyouts, and the bar offers special menus. The high-top tables feature electrical outlets and USB ports.
The Seaholm Lawn offers a prime al fresco space outside of the Art Deco Seaholm Power Plant building in downtown Austin, and has been available for events since last fall. The elevated lawn offers views of Lady Bird Lake and the city skyline. The expansive 27,000-square-foot space holds 4,000 people, or 2,000 for seated events, and can accommodate food stalls, dining tables, tents, fences, and more.
Austin’s first food hall, Fareground opened in January and features six stalls from the city’s best chefs, including tacos from game meats-focused Dai Due, sushi from Ni-Kome, and rice bowls from Henbit. Found in the lobby of the office building 111 Congress, the flexible space offers areas for informal gatherings, from the comfortable banquettes to communal tables to the outdoor plaza with lawn seating and tables. The entire food hall is available for private events as well. For parking, the next-door garage is accessible via a tunnel. A street-level bar will open later this spring.
Loro, a new Asian smokehouse from James Beard Award-winning chefs Tyson Cole and Aaron Frank, opened in April. The casual counter-service restaurant offers up smoked meats with Southeast Asian inflections, alongside draft cocktails and frozen sake slushies. The indoor space, meant to resemble a Texas dance hall, features booths, communal tables, and bar seating. Outside is the large patio, with picnic tables under the awning and gravel gardens with swings and rocking chairs. Its total seating capacity is 300.
Austin Ninjas, which opened in January, took its inspiration from the television show American Ninja Warrior. The space is a gym suitable for children or adults full of obstacles like spider wall climbs, rock climbing, and pegboards. There is a private room for events where hosts can bring their own food and drink, but alcohol is not allowed. Overall, the nearly 6,000-square-foot space holds 114 people.
