East Austin Venue North Door Is Now Closed, But Pueblo Viejo Is Staying Open

Austin Venue Shutter
East Austin venue the North Door is now closed permanently on 502 Brushy Street, as announced over its electronic newsletter. Despite the shutter, on-site Mexican restaurant Pueblo Viejo will still remain open, as confirmed by a staffer.

“During these very dark times that are decimated one business after another out there,” notes the North Door’s email newsletter, “it seems we are not immune to its painful sting. It’s been a long road for us over the last decade, and we’ve held on as long as possible, but it is with a very heavy heart that we must sadly announce that the North Door is permanently closing its doors.”

The space, which opened in 2008, was known for hosting a variety of live events, from parties to comedy shows to concerts to television and sports watch parties. The newsletter does tease that owners Michelle Patronella and Mark Bradford will reopen something similar to the venue in the feature, with a different name, eventually.

Austin Queso in Whole Foods
Austin-based chain Torchy’s Tacos is now selling its green chili queso and diablo sauce in retail form. It’ll be found at locations of Whole Foods in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The green chile queso comes in an 11.5-ounce jar for $7.99 and the diablo sauce in a 6.7-ounce bottle for $9.99.

Checking In with a Campus-Area Restaurant
Austin 360 checked in with Dirty Martin’s owner Mark Nemir ahead of the first University of Texas at Austin football game on Saturday. The restaurant stayed closed for the first time for the beginning of the football season for the first time in its history. Nemir kept the restaurant closed after city and statewide orders in March, and hasn’t offered any sort of takeout options during that time. He’ll potentially think about reopening the restaurant for dine-in service, if the state expands the dining capacity limit to 75 percent.

Austin Barbecue Restaurant History
Stiles Switch owner Shane Stiles talked about how he came to open his several restaurants — the Brentwood barbecue spot, its recent Cedar Park counterpart, and the Dripping Springs smoked meats and Cajun restaurant the Switch — with the Chronicle last week. He shared how he was potentially going to open the original Stiles Switch on South First with a beer garden, but that address became home to Thai restaurant Sway instead, how the Belterra Village development company Endeavor reached out to him about opening a restaurant there, and why they decided to expand into Cedar Park (“Cedar Park is our customer base,” said Stiles.).

Creating Lab-Grown Brisket
Texas Monthly spoke to Katie Kam and Janet Zoldan, the co-founders of BioBQ, who are looking to create the world’s first lab-grown brisket. Because they are seeking to create brisket from cow cells, the intended end result is still “meat-based meat,” as the publication describes, which means it isn’t vegan. Kam, who is a vegan, wanted to create a product that doesn’t involve the killing of an actual animal.

Forthcoming Asian Fusion Restaurant
Texas-based restaurant group Lombardi Family Concepts is opening a new Asian fusion restaurant in the Domain Northside in late October. Joi will serve dishes such as sushi, ramen, tempura, poke, and fried chicken. The new restaurant is actually taking over a location previously occupied by another Lombardi chain restaurant, French spot Toulouse, at 3120 Palm Way, Suite 150. Also under the Lombardi umbrella is Italian restaurant chain Taverna, which also has a location at the Domain Northside as well.

Trudy’s New Lead Person
There’s a new person in charge of Tex-Mex restaurant chain Trudy’s under its new ownership company of Hargett Hunter Capital Management, LLC. Dan Smith is also one of the co-owners of Scholz Garten. The company won the auction to buy the restaurant chain over the summer, after it had filed for bankruptcy in January.