Fancy Popsicle Shop Opens Up in Rock Rose

— Fancy popsicle stand Steel City Pops opened its second Austin brick-and-mortar up in the Domain Northside at 11501 Rock Rose Avenue. It is known for fruity and creamy frozen sweets that can be dipped in toppings like chocolate, toasted coconut, and more. It debuted yesterday and will offer free dips for popsicles today. The first local shop opened last fall on Guadalupe.

— Austin Restaurant Weeks is coming to the city, where participating restaurants will offer special prix fixe meals for 19 days, where partial costs will go towards organizer nonprofit Central Texas Food Bank. Meals will range from $25 two- to three-course lunches, $35 or $45 three- to four-course dinners, as well as $8 cocktails or $6 beers. Participating restaurants include Barley Swine, El Naranjo, Sway, Peached Tortilla, Cafe No Se, and others. It runs from August 16 through September 3, 2018. There used to be another Austin Restaurant Week, last held in 2014, run by Tribeza.

— Stiles Switch BBQ & Brew’s Dripping Springs restaurant The Switch welcomed a new head chef to its team, Barclay Stratton. He spent time in Blue Hill in New York, Oven Bird in Alabama, and Lenoir in Austin, where he worked with The Switch partner Todd Duplechan. The restaurant will focus on smoked meats and Cajun fare, and it’s expected to open in late spring.

— Barton Springs spot Uncle Billy’s Brewery is adding spirits to its lineup. The goal is to eventually become a brewery and distillery and make its own spirits that would be distilled from a local distillery yet to be named, but barreled and aged at the brewery. To help fund that, Uncle launched a crowdfunding campaign through MicroVentures, seeking to raise $1,000,000. Until it can do that, it has serving booze that it has been processing and adding flavors to already-distilled spirits. Uncle is working with a bourbon whiskey and vodka that are being used for cocktails.