Trendy Tiny Grocer Is Bringing French Comfort Food to Hyde Park

Boutique South Congress grocery store and cafe Tiny Grocer is opening a second location with an expanded restaurant in the former Hyde Park post office. The second Tiny Grocer will open at 4300 Speedway early next year.

With the larger space at the Hyde Park location, owner Steph Steele is planning to expand the kitchen offerings to include a counter-service cafe. She’ll add new dinner and weekend brunch services, which will lean toward French comfort fare. Expect items like steak and mussels for dinner, and eggs Benedict and croque-monsieurs for brunch. She’s working with an unnamed local chef to develop the menu.

That is in addition to Tiny’s current all-day menu which includes sandwiches, breakfast, salads, and vegan soft-serve.

For seating, the former post office loading dock will become the indoor area, and there will be an outdoor patio as well, plus a bar with a few stools for those looking to grab glasses of wine or coffee and dessert. There will be about 100 seats in total, where guests order at the counter and runners bring the food to their tables.

“What I do is to create community, and there’s not a lot of room [at the original location] to do that,” Steele tells Eater. “The idea of people meeting up for a glass of wine, sharing a dessert — all of that that comes with having a space that has more on the menu and room to really gather. That’s what I’ve wanted the next phase to be.”

Grocery-wise, Tiny Grocer in Hyde Park will stock mostly the same items as the South Congress location, with a few expansions to the offerings for kids and pets. As the store will also have additional freezer space, Steele hopes to carry more interesting cuts of meat like short ribs.

Tiny Grocer opened its South Congress location in April 2021. For that location, Steele, who formerly worked with Whole Foods and McGuire Moorman Lambert (MML), consulted with fellow MML alum Page Pressley on the menu, although he is no longer involved.

The Hyde Park post office, built in 1967, closed in 2021, much to the bafflement of residents. Austin Towers reported the property was bought by Blake Thompson of State Street Properties to develop the post office and surrounding areas into a commercial building, keeping the more historic aspects of the building intact. Steele said the building will house three businesses: Tiny Grocer, a bookstore owned by a local couple, and a third shop to be determined.