Hill Country Restaurant Updates 9/11/26

Quiet week for brand-new doors — nothing fresh opened around the valley in the last two months that we haven't already told you about. We keep this scan tight every week, so the next new spot in Dripping Springs, Driftwood, or Wimberley will show up here first.

The Vibe — Fabienne Bollom came to Dripping Springs from Brussels, married into Texas, and went looking for the kind of neighborhood café she'd left behind. When she couldn't find one, she built it — turning a former plant nursery on 290 into a European-style bakery-café, with regulars shaping the menu along the way (the cinnamon rolls and the meatloaf sandwich both started as customer requests). Twenty-plus years on, it's still family-owned, still baking from scratch, and still the place half the town meets for breakfast.

Must-Order Items — The pecan sticky buns and cinnamon rolls are the reason people line up at 8 a.m.; the meatloaf sandwich is the lunch legend. The Belgian waffle is the real thing (the owner would know), and save room for a slice of carrot cake or Italian cream cake from the case on your way out.

Pro Tip — They're open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed Sundays. Breakfast runs until 11, then lunch kicks in — get there before 9 on a Saturday if you want a sticky bun and a parking spot.

📍 333 W Hwy 290, Dripping Springs, TX 78620
🌐 https://thymeanddough.com
📞 512-894-0001

🆕 Driftwood Store restaurant & bar (Driftwood / FM 150) — The old store site on FM 150 is being rebuilt into a full dining-and-drinks hub: a new bar building, a 4,400-square-foot restaurant addition onto the original store, plus new parking and driveways — an $8.5 million project.
⏰ ETA: Construction scheduled to wrap mid-October 2026; opening TBD
📍 Address: 14999 FM 150, Driftwood, TX 78619
📞 Phone: TBD

🆕 Pop's Place (Driftwood / Hays City corner) — Going in right next to Hays City Store at the FM 150–FM 3237 corner: an inside-outside bar and hangout with three permanent food-truck pads, picnic tables, TVs, a dog park, a kids' play area, disc golf, and live music.
⏰ ETA: TBD (construction underway)
📍 Address: 8801 FM 3237, Driftwood, TX 78619
📞 Phone: TBD

Still on the board: the old Cypress Creek Café site on Wimberley Square — bought by the Community Pizza family with plans for a boutique hotel, a specialty market, and a restaurant — has had no public update this year. We'll flag it the moment it moves.

📑 The Village at Dripping Springs (13786 W US 290) — The Target-anchored center on the west side has a $7.5 million site-work filing on the books, with unassigned pad and inline space in the front buildings — the kind of footprint that usually fills with restaurants. Completion is slated for late 2027, so this is a long lead.

📑 Dripping Springs H-E-B (598 E Hwy 290) — A $372,000 "Fresh Initiative" remodel was filed in August — H-E-B's chain-wide refresh of its fresh departments. Not a new restaurant, but it's food news for the biggest kitchen in town.

The $8.5 million Driftwood Store project above is the week's biggest anchor. We'll surface the next new permit here the moment it lands.

Our weekly pick: a local favorite worth the drive.

🍽️ Wimberley Café (Wimberley) — When you need a table that works for grandparents and toddlers alike, this is the one on the Square. Wimberley Café opens at 7 a.m. and runs the old-school playbook — chicken-fried steak, migas, biscuits and sausage gravy, chicken and waffles with sweet potato fries, and burgers regulars swear by. Owners Jay and Jen Bachman (who also run Marco's Italian next door) finished a big kitchen expansion last fall so the café can turn out up to 20,000 meals a day for the community when disaster strikes.
📍 101-A Wimberley Square, Wimberley, TX 78676
🌐 https://wimberleycafe.com
📞 512-847-3333

Quiet week on the trail — no new tasting rooms, breweries, or distilleries opened or filed around Dripping Springs, Driftwood, or Wimberley. The Pop's Place bar in Driftwood (above) is the one drinks-adjacent build-out we're tracking. This is wine country, so we scan it hard every week; we'll pop the cork here the moment something new surfaces.

Good news — nothing new shuttered around the Hill Country this week. We'll always flag real closings here first.

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✌️ Until next Friday,

Nolan K.

P.S. Corrections welcome. If I got something wrong, email me at [email protected] — I try to double-check everything, but I’m human.