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Highly anticipated modern Chinese restaurant Zoé Tong is taking advantage of its proximity to Zilker Park in October by opening an outdoor pop-up restaurant during big music festival Austin City Limits. The 1530 Barton Springs Road pop-up will happen during both weekends of ACL in October.
The Zoé Tong pop-up will offer a short menu previewing some of the dishes that will eventually be on the restaurant’s menu. This includes mala cumin lamb belly chuan chuans (skewers that will be served on lettuce); char siu sticky ribs on top of fried puffed vermicelli; vegan chilled sesame noodles; and black sesame soft serve.
And since to-go cocktails are legal, the pop-up will also offer lychee sake slushies, pouched cocktails, and beer cans from Austin breweries.
People will order from the outdoor counter that will be set up at the restaurant. Items will be available to-go or to eat on the patio.
Similarly, many restaurants along Barton Springs have taken advantage of the passersby traffic along the road leading up to the main ACL entrance by opening outdoor counters selling drinks and food.
“We have such a great location near the entrance of ACL that we want to be part of the party,” co-owner Simone Tong tells Eater via a rep. “I am looking forward to meeting our new friends and neighbors personally and show them a preview of what we are about.”
Tong and co-owner/husband Matthew Hyland moved to Austin from New York City where they had run big-deal restaurants. Respectively, Tong had Yunnan restaurant Little Tong Noodle Shop and Chinese-American wine restaurant Silver Apricot (of which she is still the co-owner of); Hyland is the co-founder of pizzerias Emily and Emmy Squared. They had the goal of opening their own restaurant in their new home, and landed on Zoé Tong with a modern Chinese menu. They’re aiming to open it sometime this fall.
Zoé Tong’s ACL pop-up hours will be from 11 a.m. to midnight from Friday, October 6 to Sunday, October 8, and then again from Friday, October 13 to Sunday, October 15.
