Z’Tejas on Sixth is closing in April; here's what's coming next
An Austin dining institution with roots that extend back to the 1980s will close at the end of the month, making way for even more change on a stretch of road that has become fertile ground for hospitality.
Z’Tejas (1110 W. Sixth St.) will serve its final plate of Southwestern fare on April 1. The restaurant will celebrate its farewell with a party on March 24, featuring $5 margaritas all day.
Ticket City founder and Z’Tejas owner Randy Cohen was part of a group that purchased the restaurant chef Jack Gilmore helped make famous in the 1990s out of bankruptcy in 2017.
The restaurant group closed four locations as part of its reorganization strategy. Cohen bought out his partners, and in 2020 took sole control of ownership just before the pandemic.
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Z’Tejas has a location in Avery Ranch, which opened in 2022, as well as two locations in Arizona, and Cohen plans to open one in Kyle this summer. Cohen said he had an understanding with his landlord, Larry McGuire of McGuire Moorman Lambert, when he bought the business that his time on West Sixth Street would extend no longer than spring 2023.
MML operates nearby restaurants Clark’s, Pecan Square Cafe, Swedish Hill Bakery, and bars Howard’s and Rosie’s on the stretch of West Sixth just west of Z’Tejas.
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What's coming next?
Riverside Resources, of which MML co-founder McGuire is a partner, has plans to develop the two blocks of West Sixth Street that include Z’Tejas into a five-story, mixed-used development.
Globally celebrated Swiss architecture and design studio Herzog & de Meuron is designing the project. Architecture and design magazine Dezeen writes that the wood-clad development's “entire ground floor will be dedicated to shops and restaurants,” with offices “located on the floor above with a 60-room hotel on the second floor and two stories of private residences at the top of the building.”
McGuire confirmed the details of the Dezeen article to the American-Statesman, but beyond an estimated construction start date of late 2023 or early 2024, he had no additional comments about the Riverside Resources project.
In addition to its explosive growth on West Sixth Street, MML has in recent years opened a location of Clark’s and Mexican restaurant Las Montañas in Aspen, and the Hotel St. Vincent (which includes two restaurants) in New Orleans, and will soon open a location of Clark’s in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Z’Tejas restaurant closing downtown Austin location in April
