Texas Brewery Owned by ‘Supernatural’ Actors Temporarily Closes Taproom (2024)

Hill Country brewery Family Business Beer Co. temporarily closed its Dripping Springs taproom while it looks for a new location in Austin proper. Its last day of public service for now at 19510 Hamilton Pool Road, was on May 8. The brewery will continue to produce beer — which is available in Austin, San Antonio and Houston now, and plans to further expand that Texas distribution through 2025.

Co-owners and couple Jensen Ackles and Dannel Ackles (yes, Jensen from popular television show Supernatural) and co-owner/general manager Gino Graul opened the brewery in 2018. There had been an Austin proper location in the works at the now-never-happening St. Elmo Public Market, but the brewery had pulled out because of the pandemic. And then anyway, the project collapsed. The brewery still had plans on opening a second location though.

Austin’s bromakases

The New York Times explores the idea of the bromakase — where tech bros indulge in showy high-end omakases more for the vibes than the quality of the food — and there are a lot of Austin mentions. The piece leads with Joe Rogan praising Sushi|Bar ATX, which had been run by Austin-based chef Phillip Frankland Lee, who relocated to the city from California to run his restaurant as a pop-up and then a permanent spot during the pandemic. (Since then, he broke off from Sushi|Bar and opened his own restaurants called Sushi by Scratch; Sushi|Bar is now run by a hospitality group). It also mentions Toshokan and chef Saine Wong since he plays his guitar sometimes after meals — but also, the restaurant hosts themed omakases pegged to Taylor Swift or Disney, so it shouldn’t be considered in that category. Also as an antithesis to bromakase, the piece mentioned Austin’s newer restaurant Craft Omakase, where co-owner Charlie Wang explains their ethos as being “restraint,” when it comes to food, as well as no additional pieces at the end of meals for extra costs.

Downtown tiki co*cktail bar pop-up

Downtown Austin hotel the Fairmont is running a tiki pop-up co*cktail bar this summer. The Broken Coconut is taking over the hotel’s rooftop bar Rules & Reg at 101 Red River Street, serving up classic and house drinks like the Lone Star Mai Tai made with Texas whiskey, a coquito, and a take on the Old Fashioned. There are also larger co*cktails served in scorpion bowls and the such. Its hours are from 5 to 11 p.m. Thursday and Saturday, and then from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. It started on May 18 and runs through the middle of August.

Austin beer collaboration

East Congress neighborhood brewery Vacancy Brewing and Austin coffee shop-beer garden Cosmic Coffee collaborated on a new beer this spring. The result is an Italian-style pils, the Cosmic Sans, developed by Vacancy head brewer Brent Watson and Cosmic partner Jason Stevens. It’s available at both locations of Cosmic (off South Congress Avenue and on East Fourth Street) since May 17 and then it’ll be available at Vacancy starting on Friday, May 24.

There was a kickoff party already on May 17th, but there’s a second one happening on Friday May 24 unveiling the can with pop-up Bad Larry Burger Club, drink specials, and more from 5 to 10 p.m.

Aaron Franklin’s first brisket

Texas Monthly dug back into the state’s newspaper archives to find the very first publication mention of Franklin Barbecue’s Aaron Franklin. This happened to be in Marfa’s Big Bend Sentinel dated May 13, 2004. In a column written by Alex Manley (who had become a big Austin chef and is currently a co-partner at McGuire Moorman Lambert’s Swedish Hill), she talks about Franklin and his wife Stacy’s backyard Cinco de Mayo party. The couple had been living with now-former Franklin Barbecue manager Benji Jacob, and they hosted the party at their East Austin home where Franklin made — yeah — brisket.

The necessary on-the-concert-road Texas stop

Rock star Lenny Kravitz discovered the magic of Buc-ee’s in late March. He posted a video of himself inside the gas station store, buying drinks and Beaver Nuggets while posing with people.

Texas brewery membership grant applications are open

Nonprofit trade association the Texas Craft Brewers Guild is opening its annual membership grant program for people looking to get into brewing or open their own brewery in the state. People who are accepted will get a year of free membership into the guild, gaining access to networking and sources and the such. The goal is to give out five grants this year. The deadline is May 31.

Tracking Austin food events

Zilker Spanish tapas restaurant El Raval’s Laila Bazahm and Travis Heights hotel restaurant Cafe No Se’s Sarah Mar-Chun are collaborating on a dinner event pegged to Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month this week. The tapas meal includes dishes such as sweet potato fries served with kimchi, hot honey, and kewpie mayonnaise; deep-fried calamari with a tamarind sinigang and calamansi aioli; laksa paella, and more. There will be special co*cktails such as the Sunomono with a sesame-infused sotol. It takes place on Wednesday, May 22 for dinner hours; reservations can be booked online.