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🔝 TOP 3 IN 10 SECONDS
⭐ Our Featured Spot is The Leaning Pear in Wimberley — twenty years of Rachel and Matthew Buchanan's creek-bluff cooking, and they just finished a million-dollar expansion with a big new deck over Cypress Creek.
🆕 Goodnight Loving Vodka has taken over the old Deep Eddy tasting room on East 290 and is moving its whole spring-to-bottle operation to Dripping Springs, with a public tasting room planned for this fall.
🆕 A state filing just landed for a steakhouse called Proper Ash in the old Garbo's space at Belterra Village — and this week's craving is Sunday brunch at Homespun on Mercer Street. (🆕 = new this week.)
🏗️ COMING SOON & NEW FILINGS
🆕 Proper Ash Steakhouse (Dripping Springs / Belterra Village) — A steakhouse is headed for the space at Belterra Village that was Garbo's (and Le Vacher before that). A state filing registered September 17 describes a "Proper Ash Steakhouse" tenant fit-out — a $500,000 refresh of the 5,173-square-foot restaurant, decor and new kitchen equipment, no change of use — by a Nashville-based ownership group, with construction slated for mid-October through June 2027. Nothing's been announced by the restaurant itself yet; we'll have the concept and the people behind it as soon as they surface.
⏰ ETA: Construction Oct 2026 – June 2027
📍 Address: 136 Drifting Wind Run, Ste 101, Dripping Springs, TX 78620
📞 Phone: TBD
Still in the pipeline: The Forager, the botanical tea-and-wine shop going in next to Howdy Neighbor on Ranch Road 12, was promised for September and hasn't opened its doors yet, and Roxie's, the Salt Lick family's fried-chicken spot for the Mercer Street district, is still on the books for 2026 with no address or date. We'll flag the next new one the second it surfaces.
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✅ NOW OPEN (LAST 60 DAYS)
Quiet week for brand-new doors — nothing crossed into our 60-day window in Dripping Springs, Driftwood, or Wimberley that we haven't already told you about. Two we're still chasing: FM Pizza's move out of the trailer and into a storefront on Ranch Road 12, and Common Ground in Woodcreek (breakfast, lunch, grab-and-go coffee, and a "living thrift store" you can eat in). We'll give both a proper welcome once we've pinned down when they opened. The next new spot around the valley shows up here first.
⭐ FEATURED SPOT
The Leaning Pear (Wimberley)
Rachel and Matthew Buchanan opened The Leaning Pear in 2006 in Wimberley's restored Lowery House and moved it in 2013 to a new building on a bluff above Cypress Creek, and twenty years in it's still the table Wimberley picks for the birthday, the in-laws, and the Sunday that needs fixing. The menu stays seasonal and close to home, and they've just wrapped a million-dollar expansion — a new dining building, a 2,700-square-foot deck over the creek, and a footbridge in from a new lot — so the wait for a creek-side seat should be getting shorter. Pro tip: open Wednesday–Saturday 11 to 9 and Sunday for brunch only, 11 to 3 (closed Monday–Tuesday); get there when the doors open and ask for the creek side.
📍 111 River Rd #110, Wimberley, TX 78676
🌐 https://www.leaningpear.com
📞 512-847-7327
📖 Want the full story on The Leaning Pear — the backstory, hours, and what to order? Read our complete write-up at LocalEats.News/austin-hillcountry
🍷 DRINKS WATCH — NEW ON THE WINE & BEER TRAIL
🆕 Goodnight Loving Vodka (Dripping Springs / E US 290) — The old Deep Eddy tasting room on East 290 has a new tenant: Austin's Goodnight Loving Vodka took over the 30,000-square-foot facility on August 1 and is moving its entire spring-to-bottle operation under one roof in Dripping Springs, tasting room included.
⏰ ETA: Fall 2026 (opening date TBD)
📍 Address: 2250 E US Hwy 290, Dripping Springs, TX 78620
🌐 Website: https://goodnightlovingvodka.com
📞 Phone: TBD
🆕 Casa V Wine & Events (Wimberley / Old Rock Grove) — Sommelier Nancy Sallaberry's wine shop, patio, and gallery on Ranch Road 12 filed with the state on September 21 for a wine-and-beer permit at a second address: Building 300 in the new Old Rock Grove development off Old Kyle Road. Nothing's been announced — it reads like a move or a second room — and the current shop is still pouring Thursday–Saturday 1 to 6 and Sunday 1 to 5.
⏰ ETA: TBD (permit pending)
📍 Address: 151 Oldham St, Bldg 300, Wimberley, TX 78676 (current shop: 15555 Ranch Road 12)
🌐 Website: https://www.casavindemia.com
📞 Phone: TBD
In case you missed it: Beerburg, the wildcraft brewery on Fitzhugh Road that closed its taproom in early 2024, is back open to the public as an all-outdoor beer garden and Sunday dance hall — Sundays 2 to 7 (live music 3 to 6, usually a $10 cover), house beers plus guest wine and cider, light snacks only. 13476 Fitzhugh Rd · 512-265-0543.
😋 THIS WEEK'S CRAVING — BRUNCH
Our weekly pick: a local favorite worth the drive.
🍽️ Homespun Kitchen & Bar (Dripping Springs) — Sunday brunch on Mercer Street, in the rustic farm-to-table spot that also happens to keep more than 300 whiskeys behind the bar. Brunch runs Sundays 10 to 3: a crab cake Benedict, the Mercer Street Benedict (Canadian bacon, scrambled eggs, queso, and pico on the muffin), huevos rancheros in a cast-iron skillet, and a chicken-fried steak and eggs that will handle whatever Saturday did to you. Everything else is seasonal and sourced close to home. Open Monday–Thursday 11 to 9, Friday–Saturday 11 to 10, Sunday 10 to 9.
📍 131 E Mercer St, Dripping Springs, TX 78620
🌐 https://www.homespunkitchenandbar.com
📞 512-829-4064
📅 AROUND THE VALLEY — THIS WEEK
Saturday is Oktoberfest at Vista Brewing in Driftwood — from 11, free to get in — and the Driftwood Fall Festivaltakes over the same 21 acres starting Thursday, Oct. 1 (pumpkin patch, maze, petting zoo, $5–$15). Also Saturday, Tania's Pastry Pop-Up brings macarons, éclairs, and tartelettes to WineBerley on the Square from 2 to 5 — they sell out, so go early. The Dripping Springs Farmers Market runs every Wednesday 3 to 6 at Ranch Park (1042 Event Center Dr). On the calendar: Wimberley Market Days is Saturday, Oct. 3 (7 a.m.–3 p.m., Lions Field) and Briggs Distillingopens in Driftwood Oct. 17.
❌ RECENTLY CLOSED
Nothing we can confirm shuttered around the valley this week.
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✌️ Until next Thursday,
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.