87-Year-Old Hoffbrau Steakhouse Is Temporarily Closed For a Facelift

One of the city’s longest-running, family-owned restaurants, Original Hoffbrau Steakhouse, is closed in downtown Austin as of Sunday, February 2, according to its Facebook page. The closure is meant to be a temporary one, as the Hamby family looks to update the 87-year-old restaurant on 613 West Sixth Street in downtown Austin.

Hoffbrau’s reopening date isn’t known at this time, but the restaurant’s Yelp page currently predicts it will reopen on Tuesday, March 31.

Potential changes to Hoffbrau include updating the dining room and adding new dishes and beer bottles to the menu. “We ask that you please be patient with us during this transition, and be open to some modifications for which you may or may not feel ready” for, as the Facebook post urges.

The longtime restaurant has been slow to change since it opened in 1932 under Robert Hamby (aka Coleman) and his brother Tom, originally as a beer and snacks joint. They expanded into steaks and fuller entrees during World War II. Coleman Hamby’s sons Robert and Tom ran the restaurant from the ’50s into the ’90s, after which it went to his granddaughter Mary Gail Hamby Ray and her son Zachary. They added a full bar in 2015 and turned the restaurant’s parking lot into a beer garden, Rustic Tap, in 2016.

Hoffbrau is particularly known for its steaks drenched in lemon-margarine sauce and sides of giant potato wedges. Rustic Tap remains open during this renovation time.

• The Original Hoffbrau Steakhouse [Facebook]
• All Coverage of Hoffbrau Steak [EATX]