Plans announced earlier this year for a barbecue restaurant and pit house with a well-known name are firming up with approval by a city panel on Wednesday.
The Historic and Design Review Commission granted conceptual approval for the Terry Black’s Barbecue dining room and courtyard, which will include a pit house and parking garage at 2100 Broadway St.
How soon the aroma of smoked brisket comes to that part of Government Hill and the Pearl area is still unknown.
A hotel component shown on the site plans is on hold until City Council considers a pending rezoning request, said property owner Mark Black. If approved, a timeline for the entire project will be developed, he said.
“There will be a restaurant there,” Black said.
The hotel and restaurant are two separate entities that will share an underground parking garage, but not a barbecue brand name.
“In no way, shape or form will there be any sort of Terry Black’s hotel,” Black said. “It’s just a big piece of property — there’s 70,000 square feet — so there’s a lot of land there to develop.”
The restaurant project first came to light in January when the restaurant owners submitted site plans to the City. At that time, Black said those plans could change significantly as the project enters the design phase.
Black owns the property, a vacant lot adjacent to Alamo Colleges District offices in the Pearl district, with his brother, Mike Black, and other family members.
The Terry Black’s group owns restaurants in Austin, Dallas, Waco and its hometown of Lockhart. Under the Black Family Hospitality flagship, it also owns The High Road on Dawson, an event space in Austin, and Friday Mountain, a resort and winery in Driftwood.
The San Antonio restaurant’s look, designed by the Austin firm Chioco Design, takes its cues from the vernacular architecture found in the few remaining 1800s-era limestone houses in Hemisfair.
The plans call for the restaurant and parking garage to occupy the northernmost corner of the block, with the dining room facing Broadway Street.
Between the restaurant and North Alamo Street is the rough outline of a sprawling hotel complex with a pool and an entrance at Alling Street. Design concepts for the hotel were not included in the documents submitted for the commission’s review.
