{"id":365886,"date":"2026-07-08T21:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365886\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T21:42:08","slug":"one-of-texas-michelin-starred-restaurants-is-closing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365886\/","title":{"rendered":"One of Texas’ Michelin-starred restaurants is closing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Olamaie opened in 2014 and became a highlight of Austin’s upscale dining scene. It was one of the first Texas restaurants to earn a Michelin star with its inclusion in Michelin’s first-ever Texas guide in 2024. It retained its star in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m sad. I’m incredibly grateful to everyone that’s come through those doors and for all the contributions,” Chef-owner Michael Fojtasek\u00a0told the Statesman. “When you open a restaurant, you want to accomplish all these things; you want to live forever, and making it 12 years is pretty impressive.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fojtasek cited rising labor costs, a tough Austin market, and slow summer months as challenges Olamaie had faced. He also said that while Olamaie’s Michelin star brought in a rush of diners, the bump only lasted about eight months.<\/p>\n

Through its run, Olamaie earned several other accolades, including the Austin American-Statesman’s “Best Restaurant in Austin” in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Fojtasek was also named a Food & Wine Best New Chef in 2015.<\/p>\n

After Olamaie serves its last plate on July 19, Fojtasek will continue operating the Gimme Burger food truck at Austin’s Butler Pitch & Putt and is reportedly developing food and beverage concepts for The Burn, an upcoming Houston-area championship golf course and event center. But he seems to be done with white tablecloths.<\/p>\n

“I don’t really have a really clear pathway to what’s next, but I’m sure there’ll be something. I doubt that I will engage in another fine dining restaurant like that,” Fojtasek told the Statesman. “It’s just so hard. It’s the hours, the level that you have to play at.”\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Olamaie opened in 2014 and became a highlight of Austin’s upscale dining scene. It was one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,2466,1703,1704],"class_list":["post-365886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-chronculture","tag-chronfood","tag-chronstaff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365886","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=365886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}