New Asian Restaurant Will Serve Onigiri in Wooten

Asian Restaurant/Ice Cream Shop Lands Soon
A new Asian restaurant with ice cream is coming to the Wooten neighborhood. Sugar Pine is opening on 8578 Research Boulevard sometime in April, according to Community Impact. Owners Madhu Phillips and Joyce Yang will serve up bento boxes, onigiri, and ice cream with flavors like black sesame and green tea. For drinks, there will be coffee and tapped wine and beer.

Dogs on Texas Patios
Much like Austin, now the rest of Texas will be able to bring their dogs to restaurant patios and outdoor spaces. The new bill was approved by the Texas Senate this week. The only stipulations are that the dogs can access the alfresco spaces without walking through the indoor restaurant areas, the dogs stay on their leashes, and that there is no food prep outside.

Burger Unionization
Portland-based Little Big Burger employees formed a union, Little Big Union, this weekend. The burger chain includes an Austin location which opened last summer. Little Big Burger’s management isn’t voluntarily recognizing the union, citing that it has never been “‘anti-union,’” but that “this is an important decision and not one that should be made lightly.”

Bar Shutdowns
Two Austin bars, Club Casino on South Congress and Zota’s Night Club on Burleson Road, have been shut down by the TABC and Travis County Sheriff’s Office because of human trafficking, narcotics, and drink solicitations, according to the Statesman.

Restaurant Regulars
Austin Monthly took a look at the city’s regular restaurant customers, from Taylor Welden at Ramen Tatsu-ya (“My very first slurp of their delicious velvety tonkotsu broth is what brings me back again and again”), Jerry Lee at Kerbey Lane Cafe (“[I]f I wake hungry in the middle of the night, I can always get something to eat”), to Ivan Vires at Franklin Barbecue (he goes to the barbecue joint monthly).