Well! Isn’t THIS special?

Employees from three Austin restaurants operated by Flavor Hospitality Group are raising concerns about allegedly unpaid wages ahead of the holiday season, according to a GoFundMe posted Saturday morning. Staff from Gusto Italian Kitchen, Gina’s on Congress and Gràcia Mediterranean claim multiple payroll checks were returned unpaid before Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

You know what’s worse than getting laid off during the holiday season? Working during the holiday season, but not getting farking paid.

Gina’s employee Deven Mollinedo shared an internal message with the American-Statesman stating that Lockley would be stepping down from Flavor Hospitality Group following a sudden medical emergency and that all restaurants would be going through a “restructuring plan.” The message said the restaurants would be closed Dec. 25 through Jan. 2.
De La Fuente and Flavor operations director Amy Sherman spoke with investors in the three restaurants, all of which are under different LLCs, De La Fuente told the Statesman. Sherman said the passive investors from Gina’s on Congress said they did not have any money to give and that they had lost money as well, since their investment was paid up front.

You know what else stinks? Showing up for your reservation…

On Gusto Italian Kitchen’s social media post announcing the hiatus, one commenter criticized the lack of notice to patrons with existing reservations.
“We had a reservation for Saturday night 27. We never got a cancellation email or call. We arrived and no cars but the lights were on. We walked in and not one person in sight. No one there but the door was unlocked. We then saw the closed sign. I was about to call the police to make sure everything was ok.”

…and finding out the restaurant has closed with no notice.

As a side note, there’s no coverage of this (yet) on the increasingly worthless Eater Austin. Even a year ago, they would have been on a story about restaurant employees getting cheated like a fat man on a Chinese buffet.

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I was today days old when I learned…

…that there are only nine operating Romano’s Macaroni Grill locations.

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“…this all sounds like a taco Fyre Festival”.

Some people would say that all you have to do is, work a Fyre Festival reference into your story, and you have me.

There may be some truth to that.

But I think this is entertaining.

There is a taqueria in Mexico City, Taquería El Califa de León, that has a Michelin star. It is the only Michelin starred taqueria in the world.

Taquería El Califa de León announced that they were doing a pop-up for two weeks in Dallas.

It lasted one week.

On Tuesday, just one week into the pop-up, El Califa pulled the plug. In a statement to Chron, the taqueria said it was ending its collaboration with [some app] after the project “did not meet the agreed standards of quality, space, and raw materials required to represent the Michelin-starred taqueria.”

The pop-up is still running according to reports, but without Taquería El Califa de León’s participation.

Influencer @cowgirlseat posted a video to TikTok and Instagram about her experience with a pre-booked “chef’s table,” a fully pre-paid six-course meal, $340 for four people. Her table waited more than three hours for one drink and two tacos per person. A restaurant employee told her the kitchen was experiencing a gas leak, as that employee smoked a cigarette.

If you’re thinking this all sounds like a taco Fyre Festival, I have one irresistible piece of gossip for you, from a firsthand witness who handled the packaging: the “chef’s table” dessert was from Costco.

And allegedly the owner and chef wasn’t even there: he was at Formula 1 in Austin this past weekend, “cooking for celebrities like Chace Crawford”. (Who?)

The Chron article I think has a little less editorializing. The D magazine article contains much more opinion, including bashing the restaurant (“…many food lovers whispered that El Califa’s reputation in Mexico City is nothing special”), the Michelin Guide (“Even if Michelin had chosen the very best taquería on earth, it would still be a token.”), influencers (“…egged on by influencers who skipped the lines, we got Fyre’d by somebody who said the word “Michelin” and charged $12 for a food group that we already have on almost every street corner”), the customers (“At what point in a five-hour wait does “curious” become “gullible”?”), and the app that co-sponsored the pop-up (which I choose not to name here, though it is named in the articles).

“I go to a taco truck. I order three tacos. They cost three dollars. My Fiesta name is Pendejo.”

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Aster’s Ethiopian Restaurant Closes, Burns

With all that’s going on, I missed the news that Aster’s Ethiopian Restaurant had closed down in July. We had an SDC there once and thought the food was good, but the round tables were unnecessarily small. And on the rare occasions we want Ethiopian food, we tend to go to Taste of Ethiopia in Pflugerville.

Now comes word that not only has it closed, but the building it was in burned, along with a vacant hotel there.

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And from the legal beat…

The Razzoo’s Cajun Cafe chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday.

I like Razoo’s, but it has been a minute since I’ve been to one. The nearest Razoo’s to me is not just in Round Rock, but way the heck up in Round Rock.

Razzoo said its bankruptcy filing was fueled by some of the same things that have led other larger and smaller operators to do the same, including changing consumer behavior and inflation. Unlike everyone else, however, the Texas company also pointed out two other culprits:

Joe Biden? No.

Key competitors, specifically Chili’s and Applebee’s, “aggressively” marketed themselves and their value-leaning promotions, which shrunk Razoo’s foot traffic.

Neither of these places serve Cajun food, and Applebee’s has also fallen on hard times. I can’t really see Applebee’s/Chili’s/Razoo’s as being fungible, so I’m not sure why they’re saying this.

Razzoo also said that while crawfish season has started earlier in 2025 than 2024 (has it?), increased competition has forced it to drive prices down and thus, revenue.

Interesting. I don’t have any idea about the crawfish season, though I guess if I wanted to, I could go through my emails from Stuffed (recommended) and try to figure it out. But that would require effort.

Also interesting:

Also interesting was Razoo’s mention that it didn’t own any real estate. Its monthly rent obligations for its stores are around $650,000 a month. In more than a few discussions I’ve had with operators this year, owning property has been one of the big talking points; some business owners, like Ronnie Killen, have culled their portfolios because they prefer owning the land beneath their restaurants.

Looks like that one in Round Rock is still open, but the article mentions the sudden shutdown of one in Corpus Christi.

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More closings!

Schmidt Family Barbecue in Bee Cave is closing October 4th.

I’ve been there a few times, both for dine-in and takeout. I’ve always thought it was just a kind of average barbecue place. My mother still complains about the time she went in, got two slices of brisket, and was charged $18. I think this was before “thanks, Joe Biden”.

Schmidt is also the only barbecue place in the Lakeway/Bee Cave area: the next nearest one, to the best of my knowledge, is either the Rudy’s on 620 or the one on 360 (I’d have to check Apple Maps to see which one is actually closer). For that reason, I think this is kind of a shame, but I also feel confident that someone’s going to open another barbecue place in that spot.

We also have a Maple Street Biscuit Company in Bee Cave. I did not know Maple Street was owned by Cracker Barrel.

And guess what?

Reporting its fourth-quarter financial results earlier this month, Cracker Barrel revealed the planned closure of 14 Maple Street Biscuit Company locations. That amounts to roughly 21% of its company-owned stores for the fast-casual brand, which Cracker Barrel acquired in 2019 for $36 million.

Maple Street Biscuit Company, founded in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2012, largely escaped getting swept up in the negative publicity. The brand has locations mostly in the Southeast, Midwest, and Texas.

Probably because nobody knew they were owned by Cracker Barrel.

Fast Company pieced together their own list of closed locations, as the company has not released one. It looks like the one in Bee Cave is spared, for now. But most of the closures are in Texas.

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Food news roundup.

A few small bits of food news I’ve been meaning to get to:

Sam’s BBQ has closed. Maybe temporarily, maybe permanently, nobody seems to know for sure.

Sam’s is a fairly famous East Austin barbecue joint, perhaps best known as Stevie Ray Vaughn’s favorite. We ate there once for an SDC, and I was not impressed.

The Abuelo’s TexMex chain and their parent company, Food Concepts International, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

If memory serves, there was an Abuelo’s over near Barton Creek Mall that I ate at a few times. There’s also one in Tulsa within walking distance of the hotel that the S&WCA uses. I remember thinking it was pretty decent TexMex.

I did not know:

Pappas Restaurants purchased On the Border after the latter filed for bankruptcy. Brava Brio Restaurants also filed for bankruptcy—its second time this year.

I thought On the Border was a Brinker Group restaurant, but apparently I’m way behind: Brinker sold them off in 2010 to “Golden Gate Capital” who sold them in 2014 to “Argonne Capital Group”.

Brava Brio runs “Bravo! Italian Kitchen” and “Brio Tuscan Grille”. We used to have a Brio up at the Arboretum (used to have an On the Border up there, too) and we went there a few times with Lawrence. I always thought the food was good, but a little bit pricy. The Brio closed a few years back, and I disremember what’s in there now.

Posted in Barbecue, Closed, Mexican | 2 Comments

This is what you get…

…when you run your business on Toast.

McGuire Moorman Lambert Hospitality has taken over operational management of Easy Tiger, the bake shop and beer garden that got its start on Sixth Street downtown and currently operates locations at the Linc (6406 N. I-35) in North Austin and on 3508 S. Lamar Blvd. in South Austin.

MML has already revamped the menu at the Linc, with a returned focus to kolaches, house-smoked meats, sausages, pretzels and more of the Germanic-Texas-inspired food that was part of Easy Tiger’s original identity. The new menu is posted online at easytigerusa.com.

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600 Degrees Parmer Location Closed

Riding my bike past, I noticed that the 600 Degrees Pizza (formerly Slapbox Pizza) on Parmer at Lakeline Blvd. had closed. We ate their once, and thought the pizza was pretty good, but the layout of the restaurant was bad, with the kitchen in the middle and two lobs of seating connected by a single line of booths against the wall. I don’t even believe in Feng Shui, but that was an example of bad Feng Shui.

I thought I would mention it, because even though Google Maps no longer shows it, the company’s own website does. Might want to fix that. guys.

We recently ate at the Cedar Park location, and while the food was still decent, it takes a more sports barn approach, so, meh.

Edited to Add: Looks like something called Happy Slice Pizza is moving into this space. We’ll try to give them a try next year after they’ve been open a while.

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Quick news update.

A Panera Bread in Houston has shut down.

Wait, did I say “a Panera Bread”? I meant “15 of them”.

And the franchise owner has filed for bankruptcy.

And Panera corporate says that they revoked the franchise, but the owners kept running the Paneras illegally.

Records show EYM Café began operating the 15 locations in 2019 and in May 2025, Panera Bread filed a lawsuit against the franchisee, accusing them of repeatedly breaching its franchise agreements by failing to make required payments, maintain food safety standards, and pay vendors and landlords.

According to court filings, Panera alleges that EYM’s payment issues began surfacing in February 2025. It says inspections by Panera reportedly uncovered “multiple food safety issues” and violations of brand standards at multiple cafés. Notices of default and termination were sent for at least 10 stores between March and May, the suit says.

In other news, DipDipDip Tatsu-Ya is closing. I’ve eaten at Ramen Tatua-Ya a few times and like it, but I never went to DipDipDip, even though I really like shabu-shabu. Part of the reason for that was I heard DipDipDip was expensive.

Lawrence attributes the closing to DipDipDip being in one of our “Restaurant Sites of the Damned”, where nobody seems able to keep an establishment in that space. I’d attribute it to 1) expensive and B) I think it is hard to sell people on hot pot when it is 100 degrees outside. Then again, the ramen places seem to be doing okay, and DipDipDip was open for six years…perhaps the ramen was subsidizing the shabu-shabu, and the owners reached their limit with that?

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