For eleven years, if you wanted Siwaphan Sampaotong's cooking, you found her food truck. As Community Impact reported, Aroi Thai ran out of Belterra from 2014 until the end of 2025, building the kind of following that doesn't show up in a lease application but matters more than one. On January 2, 2026, that following got a building: Rice & Oak Thai Texas Grill Kitchen opened on Cannon Drive, just off Mercer Street, serving fire-grilled meats and curries to a dining room instead of a parking lot. The smoked brisket fried rice became a regular order almost immediately, according to local coverage of the opening. That's not really a story about a menu. It's a story about timing, and downtown Dripping Springs has been running that same experiment on a lot of storefronts this year.
Two other businesses also closed in January, the month Rice & Oak opened. Garbo's Lobster, the Austin-based seafood spot known for its lobster rolls at two other brick-and-mortar locations in North Austin, shut its Dripping Springs outpost on January 25, less than two years after it opened there in April 2024. Juniper Tree Market, a downtown retailer selling jewelry, apparel and home decor, closed the same month after five years in business. Two storefronts empty in the same span that one filled up. That's the part worth sitting with before getting to what replaced them, because the pattern underneath it explains more about Mercer Street than any single opening does.
What Closed, and What Moved In
Here's the same window laid out side by side, because the contrast is the point:
| Business | Where they built their name first | Run in downtown Dripping Springs |
|---|---|---|
| The Barber Shop (pub, in a former literal barber shop) | Mercer Street, from day one | 15 years and counting, celebrated in January 2026 |
| Rice & Oak Thai Texas Grill Kitchen | Aroi Thai food truck, Belterra | Opened January 2, 2026, still operating |
| Garbo's Lobster | Two locations in North Austin | April 2024 to January 25, 2026 (21 months) |
| Juniper Tree Market | Downtown Dripping Springs | Roughly five years, closed January 2026 |
These businesses took different paths to Mercer Street. The Barber Shop has been a Mercer Street fixture since it was actually a barber shop, fifteen years ago. Rice & Oak's owner spent over a decade earning trust from Hill Country regulars one truck window at a time before she signed a lease. Garbo's arrived with a real following, and its Dripping Springs location closed in January 2026. A business's experience in one market does not determine how it will fare in another. Juniper Tree Market closed in January after about five years in business.
Two more businesses have openings in the works. Roxie's, a Southern comfort food concept built around fried chicken, homemade pies and a full bar, has plans to open on Mercer Street sometime in 2026, though an exact date hasn't been set. Tacodeli, the Austin-and-Houston breakfast taco chain, signed a lease for a Dripping Springs location as of late September 2026, with no opening date confirmed yet. Tacodeli offers another example of an established brand from a larger market preparing to open a Dripping Springs location. How the new location fits into downtown Dripping Springs will become clearer over the next several months.
The Festival Is Betting on the Same Streets
Later this month, downtown Dripping Springs turns into something closer to a small Nashville than a Hill Country main street. The Dripping Springs Songwriters Festival runs October 16 through 18, 2026, and it's free, a three-day run of more than 50 songwriters performing across seven stages set up inside downtown's existing venues. The format is in-the-round: three or four writers trading songs and the stories behind them, in a listening-room atmosphere whether the stage is indoors or on a patio. Saturday night's Headliners Concert has historically drawn writers with credits behind songs recorded by George Strait, Willie Nelson, Martina McBride, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow, Stevie Nicks, Maren Morris, Trace Adkins and Patty Loveless, a lineup that signals how seriously the festival is taken within the songwriting community rather than treated as a small-town novelty.
Quick facts if you're planning around it:
- Dates: October 16 to 18, 2026
- Cost: free for every downtown show
- Format: 50-plus songwriters, roughly 70 shows, seven stages
- Style: in-the-round, Nashville format, three to four writers per round
- For the third year, the Dripping Springs Art League is running a live art market and studio space inside the festival footprint, with an Art Lounge selling original work alongside the music
None of this happens in a vacuum from the restaurant turnover above. A three-day, seven-stage festival needs rooms that can host a crowd on a Friday and Saturday night without missing a beat, and downtown's live-music standbys, Mercer Street Dancehall, Hudson's on Mercer and the Sidecar Tasting Room among them, are the same rooms locals already treat as their regular stops for a two-step or a quiet drink. The festival isn't creating downtown's live-music infrastructure; it's drawing on established venues already used for live music and gatherings.
What the Next Few Weeks Actually Look Like
If you live near Mercer Street, the next month gives you plenty to watch. The festival lands October 16 to 18, and Rice & Oak will be open through it, close enough to the festival footprint for a dinner before or after a set. Roxie's still doesn't have a firm opening date, so its debut could land before the holidays or slip into next year. Tacodeli's lease is signed but its build-out timeline hasn't been announced, so the storefront that used to be Juniper Tree Market, or a nearby space, could remain vacant for a while as plans take shape.
None of that is a prediction so much as a thing you can watch happen. Downtown Dripping Springs is seeing a mix of openings and closures, and the coming months will show how the plans for new storefronts take shape.
If watching Mercer Street's turnover has you thinking more seriously about what it's like to actually live near it, Bray Real Estate Group keeps a closer eye on Dripping Springs than a single festival weekend requires, and we're glad to talk through what a street like this one is worth to someone looking to put down roots nearby.
