Where Austin's new restaurants are opening
Between August 18 and October 12, 2026, 121 new restaurants and cafes inside the City of Austin showed up in Texas state records: 107 new sales tax permits, 8 TABC liquor applications still pending and 6 newly issued liquor licenses. They are spread across 35 ZIP codes, but a handful of neighborhoods account for a big share. Here is where they are, what kind of places they are, and how early you can see them.
Austin in context
Statewide, 2,922 new restaurants and cafes filed in the same 60 days. Austin's 121 puts it fourth among Texas cities, behind Houston (315), Dallas (141) and San Antonio (133) and ahead of El Paso (108) and Fort Worth (87). Restaurants are 121 of the 1,325 new Austin businesses on the map in that window, about 9%.
Only 14 of the 121 (12%) reached the map through a TABC liquor filing; the other 107 came from sales tax permits alone. Downtown 78701 and East Austin 78702 had the most liquor filings among the top ZIP codes, two each. For a beverage distributor that is the short list; for a POS, insurance or cleaning vendor, the sales tax permits are the much bigger pool.
The ZIP codes
South Austin's 78704 leads with 11 new restaurants, followed by East Austin's 78702 with 10 and 78745 with 9. Downtown's 78701 has 8. Those four ZIP codes hold 38 of the 121, almost a third of the city's new restaurants. Northwest Austin is the surprise: 78731 and 78750 together have 11, and every one of those 11 permits listed a first sales date that had not arrived yet.
| ZIP | New restaurants | Not open yet at permit |
|---|---|---|
| 78704 | 11 | 8 |
| 78702 | 10 | 6 |
| 78745 | 9 | 5 |
| 78701 | 8 | 2 |
| 78731 | 6 | 6 |
| 78752 | 6 | 1 |
| 78753 | 6 | 2 |
| 78751 | 5 | 1 |
| 78750 | 5 | 5 |
| 78723 | 5 | 4 |
| 78758 | 5 | 1 |
August 18 to October 12, 2026. "Not open yet" = the permit lists a first sales date after the date it was issued.
A third of them are food trucks
The Comptroller files each permit under a federal industry code, and that code tells you what kind of restaurant it is. The single biggest group in Austin is mobile food services, the code food trucks and trailers use: 44 of the 121, or 36%. Counter service places (order at the register) come next with 26, then full-service restaurants with 24, and coffee shops, juice bars and snack bars with 13. The remaining 14 arrived through TABC, which does not assign an industry code.
If you sell to restaurants, that mix matters. A food truck needs a commissary, a point-of-sale tablet, insurance and a wrap. A full-service room needs linens, a liquor distributor and a cleaning contract. The Austin restaurants page lists the newest ones by name.
More than half had not opened yet
Of the 107 Austin restaurant sales tax permits, 63 (59%) listed a first day of sales that was still in the future when the permit was issued. In other words, the business registered with the state before it served anyone. Statewide, restaurants show the same pattern: 61% of restaurant permits in this window were issued ahead of the first sales date, against 49% for retail.
The liquor side gives even more notice. The 8 Austin restaurants with a TABC application still pending include Marcelo's Trattoria LLC (78748, filed October 12) and Lola's CC LLC (78704, filed October 7). Licenses issued in the same window include Cafe Fleurs de Nuit in 78702 (October 6) and Nishi sushi in 78745 (October 5).
Week by week
Most weeks bring 12 to 15 new Austin restaurants. The week of September 21 stood out with 26. The first and last bars are drawn lighter: the data starts on August 18, partway through that week, and the state is still publishing the most recent permits.
Beyond the city limits
The suburbs add a meaningful second ring. In Travis, Williamson and Hays counties, Round Rock had 15 new restaurants in the same 60 days, Leander 13, Cedar Park 12, Georgetown 10 and Pflugerville 9.
What a few recent names look like
The permits name the business the way the owner registered it, which is often an LLC rather than the sign over the door. Recent Austin examples from the first half of October: Tema Congress LLC (78701), Sushi-Fy Austin Re LLC (78704), Red Claw 88 (78753), Sakura Sushi And Bar (78737) and Senko Matcha LLC (78731). The map shows every one with its category and date; Openings Pro adds the street address.
Follow Austin every week
New restaurants keep arriving at roughly a dozen a week. The free Monday email sends Austin's new permits and liquor applications in one message, and the Austin map shows the last 14 days for free.