Favorite Austin Restaurants & Classic Dining Spots

Originally opened in 1930s and at its current location since 1951, a visit to Nau's is like stepping into a time tunnel for a trip back to the fifties. With it's orange swivel seats and mint green counters, Nau's received a 2006 preservation award for maintaining Austin's heritage. The menu includes breakfast tacos, omelettes, burgers and grilled sandwiches, made-from-scratch malts, shakes, sundaes and ice cream sodas and to make the experience complete, a good selection of retro candy. Besides being famous for it's soda fountain and hamburgers, former Dallas Cowboy Hollywood Henderson bought a winning $28 million lottery ticket there in 2000.

The original Threadgill's was opened as a gas station on North Lamar by country music singer and yodeler Kenneth Threadgill in 1933. In that same year, Mr. Threadgill became the proud owner of the first liquor license in Travis County after the repeal of Prohibition and soon Threadgill's Tavern became a favorite spot for traveling musicians since it was open 24 hours for food, drinks, music and a fill-up. In the 1960's local folk musicians and students from the University of Texas became part of the clientele and it was at Threadgill's that then student Janis Joplin began to develop her unique singing style. When Mr. Threadgill decided to close Threadgill's after the death of his wife, Eddie Wilson, owner of the Armadillo World Headquarters, purchased it. The Armadillo closed on New Year's Eve of 1980 and the new Threadgill's, serving Southern style down home cooking, opened on New Year's Eve 1981. In 1996, Threadgill's World Headquarters was opened in south Austin next door to the location of the by-then demolished Armadillo World Headquarters. The theme of the north location is Austin between the 1930's and the 1960's. The south location features the history of the Armadillo and Austin in the 1970's. Both locations feature live music and a third location in Cedar Park is currently under construction.