{"id":101875,"date":"2025-12-27T00:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/101875\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T00:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:48:08","slug":"austins-suerte-tries-out-steakhouse-life-for-10-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/101875\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin’s Suerte tries out steakhouse life for 10 days"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back at the stories that defined Austin this year, including the always evolving restaurant and cocktail scene. This is a meaty list, with lots of barbecue, steaks, and long-awaited debuts. Austinites also enjoyed validation that some of our restaurants here stand out among the best in Texas and the world. Here’s a look at the 10 hottest Austin restaurant and bar headlines of 2025.<\/p>\n

1. Austin steakhouse named among best in the world by secret reviewers<\/a>. So-called “Steak Ambassadors” who have industry backgrounds as chefs, food journalists, or “certified meat- and Wagyu masters,” ranked Jeffrey’s among the 101 Best Steakhouses in the World.<\/p>\n

2. 3 Austin eateries appear on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives<\/a>. Casual culinary icon Guy Fieri visited Industry Eastside, Lao’d Bar, and Ramen Del Barrio \u2014 or so we guessed by these not-so-secretive episode descriptions.<\/p>\n

3. Austin favorite declared best BBQ joint in Texas by Southern Living<\/a>. In all, the magazine singled out one barbecue restaurant in each of 16 states. For Texas, it was the legendary Franklin Barbecue.<\/p>\n

4. Austin Tex-Mex restaurant opens 2nd location with new cocktail lounge<\/a>. A second location for Mama Betty’s Tex-Mex and a new cocktail lounge called Foxtail opened next to each other on the same day in November.<\/p>\n

5. Anticipated Austin restaurant collab and botanical garden prep for debut<\/a>. Leona Botanical Caf\u00e9 & Bar, perhaps Austin’s most anticipated opening of 2025, finally opened with a five-acre garden, two eateries, and a bar fusing Thai and Mexican influences.<\/p>\n

\"Leona Leona Botanical Caf\u00e9 & Bar takes advantage of the sprawl that makes South Austin special. Photo by Diana Rothery <\/p>\n

6. Historic inn near Austin reopens 78-year-old eatery after renovations<\/a>. Out in Salado, the restaurant at the historic Stagecoach Inn has been serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner since 1947 \u2014 minus a two year break for renovations beginning in June 2023.<\/p>\n

7. Local YouTube star ranks 5 top Austin BBQ joints against Texas’ best<\/a>. YouTube star and Austinite Joshua Weissman went on a statewide expedition to try some of Texas Monthly’s best barbecue joints. He ordered only one meat, brisket, and the same four sides at each restaurant.<\/p>\n

8. Upscale Italian restaurant in Austin to debut new chef and lounge<\/a>. Juniper still feels fresh after nearly a decade, and some operational changes are keeping that going: a new executive chef, a new general manager, and some interior renovations.<\/p>\n

9. New Lake Travis wedding venue transforms space left by longtime eatery<\/a>. Union Pointe on the Lake opened in the former Iguana Grill space, with sweeping lake views, a spacious lakeside lawn, and an airy main hall with floor-to-ceiling windows.<\/p>\n

10. Popular Italian restaurant follows sudden close with new East Austin space<\/a>. Poeta found fast success when it opened in late 2023, so its sudden and confusing closure in 2025 was a disappointment to many locals. Thankfully, it found a new temporary space, and by the time of this year-end recap, has moved again into a hopefully permanent<\/a> spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor’s note: As 2025 comes to a close, we’re looking back at the stories that defined Austin this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,3587,3568,5463],"class_list":{"0":"post-101875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-mexican-cuisine","12":"tag-pop-ups","13":"tag-steakhouse"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}