Hill Country
25 open around Austin
West on 290 and beyond: limestone, cypress creeks, and breweries and bakeries in towns of a few thousand people.
The towns
Restaurants7
Craft beer4
Vista Brewing?
Solid · Brewery · Driftwood · $$
walk-in
Eric Puga's favorite beer in Austin is a black pilsner made 25 miles out of town: Dark Skies, bronze at the 2024 U.S. Open and gold in 2018.
Suds Monkey Kitchen & Brewery Dripping Springs?
Listed · Pizza · US 290 west · $$
walk-in
Greg Plummer brewed at Stone in California before he built this, and he names the beers for phases in the life of a cartoon monkey.
Acopon Brewing Co.?
Listed · Craft beer · Dripping Springs · $$
walk-in
Four working hand pumps in the Hill Country, pulling Dark Mild, Special Bitter, Golden Ale and an ESB.
12 Fox Beer Co?
Listed · Craft beer · Dripping Springs · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
Old-school Texas barbecue from a truck that parks here five days a week, at a brewery that opens three.
Bakes & sweet1
Abby Jane Bakeshop?
Solid · Heritage-grain bread, pastry and sourdough pizza · Dripping Springs
walk-in
The heritage grain is milled next door at Barton Springs Mill and goes straight into the bread, the pastry and the wood-fired pizza dough.
Producers13
William Chris Vineyards?
Solid · Texas wine · Hye · $$
book ahead
Bill Blackmon has grown Texas grapes since the eighties. The red he and Chris Brundrett blend in Hye is named Enchanté, after Enchanted Rock up the road.
CALAIS Winery?
Solid · Texas wine · Hye · $$
booking essential
Benjamin Calais dug his winery into the side of a hill outside Hye, and both tastings happen down in the cave, four people at a time.
Pedernales Cellars?
Solid · Texas wine · Stonewall · $$
book ahead
The Aletheia rosé is mourvèdre and grenache off certified organic acreage in Seminole. Paula Forbes says it beats the same winery's rosé made from non-organic fruit.
Duchman Family Winery?
Listed · Texas wine · Driftwood · $$
walk-in
Two doctors decided Texas weather behaved like Italy's, so they planted a winery around Vermentino, Sangiovese and Dolcetto.
French Connection Wines?
Listed · Texas wine · Hye · $$
book ahead
Benjamin Calais makes the mourvèdre here off Dell Valley vines planted in 1976, and calls the red blend Châteauneuf de Hye.
Inwood Estates Vineyards Winery & Bistro?
Listed · Texas wine · Fredericksburg · $$
book aheadthe room’s own account
Dan Gatlin planted 22 vinifera varieties in Denton County in 1981 to find out what Texas could ripen, and forty years later the answer is Tempranillo.
Bending Branch Winery?
Listed · Texas wine · Comfort · $$
book ahead
Souzão has dark flesh as well as dark skin, it is normally grown in Portugal to colour port, and this winery was the first in Texas to plant it.
Chocolates El Rey?
Listed · Chocolate · Stonewall · $
walk-in
A Venezuelan chocolate maker founded in 1929 keeps its US operation on Ranch Road 1623 in Stonewall, selling 73.5 percent Apamate discos by the three-pound bag.
Kalasi Cellars?
Listed · Texas wine · Fredericksburg · $$
book ahead
Nikhila Narra Davis grows all 140 acres of the fruit she bottles, and the wine Texas Monthly carried home from here was a teroldego.
Ron Yates Wines?
Listed · Texas wine · Hye · $$
book ahead
Seven generations of Yates have worked Texas land, and this one put a wood-fired pizza oven in the tasting room on US-290.
Garrison Brothers Distillery?
Listed · Bourbon · Hye · $$
book aheadthe room’s own account
Every bottle is milled, cooked, distilled, barreled and aged on the Hye ranch, and volunteers hand-dip each one in wax in the bottling room you walk through.
Hilmy Cellars - Vineyards, Winery & Tasting Room?
Listed · Texas wine · Fredericksburg · $$
book aheadthe room’s own account
Erik Hilmy picked this ground in 2008, farmland on heavy clay outside Fredericksburg, and planted it.
Singing Water Vineyards?
Listed · Texas wine · Comfort · $$
walk-inthe room’s own account
You pick your own five wines off the current list here rather than taking whatever flight the room decides, Thursday to Sunday, noon to five.
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