Taqueria Chapala ran at 2101 E. Cesar Chavez St. for 29 years. It took less than five months to go. Community Impact reported that the lease news came in writing on May 1, was confirmed in person on June 15, and the restaurant served its last day at the corner of Anthony on September 27.
A few blocks south, the City's plan for the Holly shoreline dates to 2014. Its next phase is scheduled to break ground in 2027.
Those two timelines explain most of what changed in Holly this year. The commercial strip turns over on lease cycles, and two restaurants opened there in 2026 while a long-running one left. The park runs on donor fundraising and permit schedules. So the shoreline you walk this fall is the one you'll still be walking at the end of the year.
Seven months on the strip
From Chicon toward Pleasant Valley, the 2026 changes on East Cesar Chavez came in this order:
- March 31. Austin Oyster Co. opened its first restaurant at 2502 E. Cesar Chavez St., six years after the company started in 2020.
- May 1. Taqueria Chapala got the written notice that its lease would not be renewed.
- September 12. Ben & Lynn's opened at 2600 E. Cesar Chavez St.
- September 27. Chapala closed its original location.
- October 29. Chapala's reopening date at 2448 S. First St.
That puts two openings and one departure inside seven months, all within a few blocks. Austin Oyster Co. brought a raw bar with rotating oysters, dressed clams and tuna tartare. It also serves Lone Pine Pearls from the company's own farm in Maine when they're available. The kitchen side of the menu runs from baked clam "stuffies" and a lobster roll to a Texas Wagyu burger and a bone-in pork chop, so not every order at the table has to be seafood. Community Impact's April write-up has the full menu.
Ben & Lynn's covers the quicker end of the strip. Community Impact described fried chicken sandwiches, chicken bites, fries and soft serve, with local beer and champagne.
What left with the corner at Anthony
The loss at 2101 is specific. Two brothers opened Chapala as a family business on July 1, 1997. Over the years the menu built up around barbacoa and breakfast tacos, caldo de res, menudo, whole fried tilapia, and the Chapala Especial, a Jalisco-style barbacoa plate.
The family is keeping the restaurant going on South First, which means a drive across the river for Holly regulars instead of a walk. The building at Cesar Chavez and Anthony is the thing to watch next. As of September 28, a sign outside listed the space for lease as a second-generation restaurant. In practice, that means the next tenant inherits a space already built out for a kitchen.
Spaces like that tend to fill with another restaurant rather than a different kind of business. Given how fast the rest of this year's changes happened, a new name at that corner could show up well before anything gets built on the lakefront.
Two older and newer anchors frame the block. Juan in a Million at 2300 E. Cesar Chavez St. dates to 1980. Community Impact marked its 45th year in August 2025, with the Meza family still running it.
Next door at 2324 E. Cesar Chavez St., the Austin Chronicle profiled Five O Four in January 2026. It's a food truck serving Honduran-Creole cooking.
Between them, the 2300 block has a 46-year-old breakfast institution and a truck that's new this year, a few doors apart.
Why the lake moves on a different clock
The shoreline south of Cesar Chavez has been changing too, but on a schedule measured in years. Here is where each Holly lakefront project stands, according to the City of Austin and The Trail Conservancy:
| Project | Status this fall | Next step on the City's schedule |
|---|---|---|
| Holly Shores Fishing Pier | Completed spring 2025 | None, open now |
| Eastside Family Garden | Fundraising and permitting, in progress | Construction in 2027 |
| Lakefront Trail Park | Fundraising and permitting, in progress | Construction in 2027 |
| Camacho floating dock | Design spring 2026, permitting summer 2026 | Construction start spring 2027 |
| Fiesta Gardens rehabilitation | Design and construction documents ongoing | Bidding spring 2027, construction winter 2027 |
| Holly Warehouses reuse | On hold | No reuse decision listed |
The gap comes down to how the money works. A restaurant opening needs a lease and a build-out. The Eastside Family Garden and Lakefront Trail Park are paid for by The Trail Conservancy's project donors, and the City lists fundraising as a step still in progress.
The design work itself is done. The Trail Conservancy lists the projects at completed schematic design. After three rounds of community engagement, the original three pieces were reorganized into two fundraising projects. The play area became the Eastside Family Garden, and the trail enhancements and trailhead became the Lakefront Trail Park.
The design drawings show a community lawn and play area at the garden site, plus a terrace overlook, a large meadow and a bike skills area at the trail park.
The Lakefront Trail Park would reshape nearly 10 acres along Lady Bird Lake.
If you missed the Eastside Family Garden open house at the Lorraine "Grandma" Camacho Activity Center on October 10, the City's project page links to the engagement reports and the story map from the earlier rounds.
The Fiesta Gardens schedule also notes that its dates are subject to change.
What the shoreline looks like until then
Because none of the upcoming projects on that table breaks ground before 2027, this fall's lakefront is the familiar one. The planned play area site is the one acre along Jesse E. Segovia Street between Fiesta Gardens and the Camacho Activity Center. The City describes it today as mowed Bermuda grass with picnic tables and temporary lighting.
The newest piece you can actually use is the fishing pier, finished in spring 2025. That project realigned the trail along the waterfront so it's ADA accessible, opened up views of the water for fishing, restored wetland habitat along the shoreline, and added seating under the heritage oaks.
For a fall walk, that stretch is the clearest preview of what the 2014 Holly Vision Plan has been aiming for. The plan's goals include more shade, more places to sit, and better trail connections.
Two November weekends that bring visitors to Holly's streets
The lakefront won't change this season, but two events will put a lot of visitors on Holly's streets, and one of them asks guests to park here outright.
- Sunday, November 1, 1 to 6 p.m. The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center holds its 19th annual Día de los Muertos celebration. It's free, family-friendly and alcohol-free, with ofrendas, art installations and a community altar open to public contributions. The MACC asks guests to park for free in the Holly Street neighborhood just east of the center and walk 5 to 10 minutes under I-35, or take a shuttle from the neighborhood. Expect more parked cars and foot traffic on Holly blocks near the highway that afternoon.
- Saturday, November 14, noon to 6:30 p.m. The Texas Craft Brewers Festival comes to Fiesta Gardens, 2101 Jesse E. Segovia St., with 80 Texas breweries and more than 200 beers listed.
If you have kids heading out on Halloween eve, there's one more option just outside Holly. Hallo's Eve at Pan Am runs Friday, October 30, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Oswaldo A.B. Cantu/Pan American Recreation Center, 2100 E. 3rd St.
Of everything on this list, the Día de los Muertos parking is the item most likely to affect your own block. It falls on the Sunday right after Chapala's South First reopening date.
A neighborhood changes fastest where the leases are, and in Holly this year that was the stretch from 2300 to 2600 East Cesar Chavez. If you own on these blocks and want to know what the new restaurants and the 2027 park construction could mean for your home, Christine Hsu is glad to go through it with you. Schedule your free concierge consultation.
