Tarrytown carries a reputation for staying the same. The oaks are old, the Casis Village storefronts turn over slowly, and most residents can trace the block-by-block rhythm of Windsor Road from memory. That reputation is doing the neighborhood a disservice this summer. Between April and now, three of Tarrytown's cultural anchors have added something worth walking to, and one of them opened in a space most locals had written off as permanently sleepy.
Here is what has actually changed, and what to do with it before the light shifts in September.
Windsor Road picks up a new tenant worth the walk
Community Kitchen and Taproom opened in April at 3110 Windsor Road, tucked between Pak Mail and Austin Pets Alive, facing the street. If the name sounds familiar, it should. Marlon Rison and Ericka Dotson ran Community Vegan, a food truck operating out of a brightly painted 1973 Winnebago on East 11th Street, for five years before landing this brick-and-mortar. This is the same kitchen, grown up.
The menu leans into what Rison calls comfort food that happens to be plant-based. Fried chicken is made with oyster mushrooms, nuggets use lion's mane, and dishes like surf and turf combine plant-based steak and shrimp. The space itself is designed to feel unhurried, with live plants on wood-block tables, low lighting, and gentle jazz.
A practical note: hours are Wednesdays and Thursdays 4–9 pm, Fridays and Saturdays noon to 9 pm, and Sundays 11 am to 6 pm with brunch from 11 to 3. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays. The restaurant's own site warns that the address isn't well-represented on Google Maps yet, which explains why a few neighbors have driven past it twice.
The reason this matters beyond dinner plans: Windsor Road has been slow to attract chef-driven concepts. Casis Village and Tarrytown Center have long held down the daytime coffee and boutique-shop economy, but the corridor's evening options have skewed toward whatever spills over from Exposition. A restaurant with real menu ambition on this stretch is a shift, not a data point.
A second Bésame lands a few blocks over
Around the same week Community Kitchen was firing up its ovens, Bésame, a spot for ice cream, coffee, and other treats, opened a second food truck in Tarrytown with a soft opening in early April. Two openings on the same corridor in the same month is unusual for a neighborhood that averages maybe one meaningful food debut a year. If you have been telling out-of-town guests that Tarrytown is charming but you have to drive to eat, that talking point is officially stale.
Laguna Gloria is doing more than most residents realize
Everyone in 78703 knows Laguna Gloria exists at 3809 W 35th St. Fewer know what is actually on view, and fewer still take advantage of the free hours. Both are worth fixing before ACL season eats every weekend.
The current outdoor headline is Laura Lit's HOST, described by The Contemporary Austin as the first solo museum exhibition and debut outdoor installation by the Austin-based artist, staged in the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park. Lit's work is known for vivid, polymorphic forms that hover between the surreal and the corporeal, which is museum-speak for sculpture that reads well against live oaks and stops kids in their tracks.
A short list of what is worth putting on the calendar:
- Free Thursdays. The grounds are free every Thursday, and the museum runs a staff-led Lantern Tour on Thursday evenings from 6–8 pm, exploring the art on display across the grounds. Only ten tickets per tour, so advance booking is smart.
- General grounds hours. The grounds and Marcus Sculpture Park are open Monday–Saturday 9 am–5 pm and Sunday 10 am–5 pm. The historic Driscoll Villa keeps a shorter Tuesday–Sunday schedule.
- The Very 'Rary, October 18. The Contemporary's annual family fundraiser returns to Laguna Gloria on Sunday, Oct. 18 at 2 pm. This year marks the event's fifth, with all-ages artmaking, electric performances, and delightful discoveries across the 14-acre sculpture park. Proceeds fund the museum's K–12 arts programs.
The reason to bother with any of this: Laguna Gloria functions best as a repeat visit, not a one-time destination. The sculpture rotation and the seasonal light on the Colorado River bluff reward the residents who treat it like a park with art in it. That is a Tarrytown privilege the rest of Austin drives across town to borrow on Thursdays.
Muny at 102, still $30 on a Tuesday
Lions Municipal Golf Course sits at 2901 Enfield Road, a five-minute drive from most Tarrytown addresses, and it remains one of the more improbable civic assets in the city. The lease story with the University of Texas is ongoing and has generated years of headlines. The daily reality of the course is simpler: it is open, it is affordable, and it is still hosting the same summer tournament it has since the Truman administration.
Muny hosts Texas' oldest amateur tournament, the Firecracker Open, which dates back to the 1940s and boasts Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite as past champs. Weekday rates at Muny run around $30, which puts an 18-hole round at less than a decent lunch at most South Congress restaurants.
Two things worth holding in mind at once. First, the course occupies 141 acres of land the City of Austin leases from the University of Texas, and the redevelopment question is not settled. Second, none of that changes what happens if you show up Tuesday morning. Reservations for Monday–Friday tee times are taken in person when the pro shop opens, and 30 minutes before the first tee time by phone at (512) 978-6869. Online tee times for Monday–Thursday open at 9 am, seven days in advance.
The historical footnote most Tarrytown residents already know but tend to underweight: Muny was the first desegregated public golf course in the southern United States, and that recognition earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. Playing a $30 round on a Tuesday is not just a cheap tee time. It is one of the more direct ways a resident can vote with their feet for the course to keep existing.
The through-line
Tarrytown's identity was set in 1934, when the first phase of development opened, named for the family's summer retreat in Tarrytown, New York. Ninety-plus years later the neighborhood still reads as established and quiet, and most of the coverage it gets treats it that way. What the last four months suggest is a slightly more accurate story: a stable residential core with a slowly modernizing food corridor on Windsor, a working contemporary art museum on the western edge, and a golf course whose future is contested but whose Tuesday tee sheet is not.
None of these updates rearrange the neighborhood. Together they do argue that Tarrytown rewards residents who actually leave the house. The people getting the most out of 78703 this summer are the ones who noticed that Community Kitchen quietly opened between the mail store and the pet shelter, that Laura Lit's installation is walkable from most of the neighborhood, and that Muny is still doing what Muny does.
When you're ready to talk about staying, or coming home
Neighborhood knowledge is the whole job. Whether you are considering a move within Tarrytown, weighing a first purchase west of MoPac, or thinking about what your current block is actually worth in this market, The Agency Austin – Noa Levy works this corridor closely and can talk through it without the sales pitch. Let's Connect.
