Taco Flats Owner Is Opening a New Restaurant on East 6th

Taco Flats owner Simon Madera is opening a new restaurant in East Austin, taking over dive bar Kellee's Place and M-Train BBQ’s locations on 2500 East 6th Street.

The unnamed spot will work as a restaurant first, and a bar second. The menu will include tacos and more seafood offerings while “still touching Mexico City roots,” Madera said. It’ll offer house-made tortillas and chips, as well as drinks.

While the restaurant is similar to Taco Flats, Madera emphasizes it is not an expansion. “To branch [Taco Flats] out and call it number two or three,” he said, wouldn’t “do justice to the name.” It is meant to be a standalone entity.

Madera, who is in the middle of signing paperwork to own the East 6th Street property, is working with partner and landscape architect Mark Word to create and design the restaurant. It will break ground in September. The unnamed restaurant should ideally open sometime in the late spring or early summer of 2018.

The original dive bar and music spot Taco Flats served Austin on North Lamar in the 1970s. Madera revived the venue with the Burnet Road bar and taco spot, with the blessing from former co-owner Linda Steele, in 2014.

Kellee's Place is currently open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and Monday. Madera noted that it might stay open during the permitting process. The future of M-Train BBQ, which replaced John Mueller’s barbecue trailer, isn’t set as of yet.

This story has been updated to reflect the current ownership status of the East 6th Street property, as well as Kellee’s current hours.

• All Coverage of Taco Flats [EATX]