New Casual Mexican Restaurant From Hopdoddy Burger Bar Founders Opens on South Lamar Soon

A new Mexican restaurant is opening in Zilker this year. Masa Y Más will open at 1817 South Lamar Boulevard starting on Friday, January 6, 2023.

The casual counter-service restaurant will focus on regional Mexican fare, including tacos with Guerrero-style barbacoa, Mexico City suadero, and Jalisco-style birria, among others, all with handmade tortillas — flour and both yellow and blue corn — made using techniques and recipes from chef/operating partner Roberto Campos’s grandmother. Then there will be dishes like tortas, papas rellenos, meat and veggie-filled bowls, and sides like fried cauliflower, queso, beans, and more. For drinks, there will be aguas frescas, margaritas, mezcal, tequila, rum, and Mexican beers.

Along with Campos, who is leading the kitchen, there are his co-partners and the co-owners Larry Perdido and Chuck Smith, who also were the founding partners of Hopdoddy Burger Bar, Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill and its on-site speakeasy-ish bar Kinfolk. Before opening this restaurant, Campos worked at two of Perdido and Smith’s other restaurants: the since-closed Caribbean downtown Austin restaurant Saba Blue Water Cafe, and had been at Moonshine.

Perdido and Smith wanted to open Masa as a way of giving Campos his own restaurant, something the chef has been wanting to work on for a while.

The new restaurant is taking over the space that previously belonged to a location of local mini-chain Austin’s Pizza, which closed sometime in 2021. The space includes an indoor dining room and a covered patio. There’s an exterior mural featuring Campos’s mother Maria Concepcion, aka Conchita, created by Austin artist Niz.

Masa’s hours will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday; and then from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday.

Bruce Malone

Bruce Malone

Bruce Malone

Annie Ray Photography