If you have lived in 78703 for any stretch of time, you already know the choreography of a Tarrytown summer. The peacocks at Mayfield fan out by mid-morning. Reed Park fills and empties on a schedule that tracks the shade line. And the two shopping centers at Windsor and Exposition, sitting across from each other since before the Second World War, hum along at a pace set by regulars. What is different this year is the choreography itself. The block is turning over. Not loudly, and not all at once, but enough that the corner your Saturday routine runs through no longer looks quite like it did in 2022.
The Windsor Road corner is quietly being rewritten
Start at 3110 Windsor Road. For years the address read as a bar, then a series of holdovers, then a closed door. In April 2026 it reopened as Community Kitchen and Taproom, serving plant-based versions of fried chicken, surf and turf, and barbecue plates alongside classic Southern sides. The owners, Marlon Rison and Ericka Dotson, are not new to Austin. They first launched their business five years ago as Community Vegan, a food truck operating out of a brightly painted 1973 Winnebago on East 11th Street, where they built a neighborhood following with dishes like Southern fried chick'n biscuits, Vegan Korean BBQ Fries, and steak frites. The Tarrytown space is their first brick-and-mortar.
The room reads as considered rather than trendy. The space is designed to feel relaxed and welcoming, with live plants on wood-block tables, low lighting, and gentle jazz. The menu is a study in substitution. Fried chicken is made with oyster mushrooms, nuggets use lion's mane, and dishes like surf and turf combine plant-based steak and shrimp. Hours skew evening and weekend brunch: Wednesdays and Thursdays from 4 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 9 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. with brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. One practical note if you are pulling it up on your phone: the address does not read cleanly on Google Maps yet, but it is correct, and the entrance faces Windsor between Pak Mail and Austin Pets Alive.
A few blocks away, a second recent arrival is already part of the after-park routine. 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 within the same month, on the same commercial spine, is not a coincidence. It is the first visible sign that the tenant mix on this stretch is being redrawn.
Across the street, a slower change with a longer tail
Cross Exposition and you are in Casis Village, the 1952 counterpart to Tarrytown Center. The change here is not a new tenant but a new landlord. In May 2023, Casis Shopping Center was sold to a partnership between Austin-based Ivy Cos. and 35 South Capital, and the new owners plan to make renovations to the center's façade, landscaping, and common areas. Three years in, the renovation posture matters more than the transaction itself. Shopping-center refreshes rarely arrive as a single announcement. They arrive as a repainted trim, a new lightpost, a re-graded planting bed, and eventually a different feel at the same street corner.
What has not changed is the anchor. Tarrytown Pharmacy has been serving the city of Austin for more than 80 years, and as the city has changed, the local pharmacy has moved a few times but has continued to serve generations of Austinites. The store is now in its 84th year, still owned and run by the Newberrys, with three generations of family ownership beginning with the grandfather, then the father, and now Mark since 2004. The current address is 2727 Exposition Boulevard, a short walk from the original 1941 location at 3310 Windsor Road where the pharmacy opened the day before Pearl Harbor Day, December 6, 1941. When Casis Village changed hands, the intent on both sides was for the pharmacy to stay put, and nothing was to change for customers or employees.
The reason to hold both facts in your head at once, a new landlord and a lifer tenant, is that they set the range of what this corner is likely to become. Refreshed common areas without displacement. New concepts on one side of Exposition, generational businesses on the other.
What's new on the block this summer
A compressed reference, dated, so you can plan around it:
- Community Kitchen and Taproom, 3110 Windsor Road, opened April 2026. Plant-based Southern from the Community Vegan team.
- Bésame food truck, second location in Tarrytown, soft opening early April 2026. Ice cream, coffee, treats.
- Casis Village under Ivy Cos. and 35 South Capital ownership since May 2023, with façade, landscaping, and common-area renovations planned.
- Tarrytown Pharmacy at 2727 Exposition Boulevard, 84th year of continuous operation in the neighborhood.
Down the hill, Laguna Gloria keeps a summer schedule worth memorizing
Six minutes west, the neighborhood's cultural anchor is running one of its more approachable programs of the year. The Contemporary Austin at Laguna Gloria is a fourteen-acre site on Lake Austin, home to the Driscoll Villa, Gatehouse Gallery, the Art School, and the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park. A few facts worth pinning to the fridge.
Thursdays are free. Thursdays are free admission days, a significant perk for visitors looking to experience the art without a fee. On Thursday evenings the museum runs its Lantern Tour, which is a free, staff-led tour from 6 to 8 p.m. exploring the art on display across the grounds, with new perspectives on the artworks and the natural surroundings. Only ten tickets are available per tour, so advance ticketing is preferred.
Second Saturdays are for families and rotate a guest artist. This month's is puppet-focused, with a Second Saturday session at Laguna Gloria from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with guest artist Kade Conklin, inviting participants to bring their own character to life. And save the date already on the calendar: The Very 'Rary on Sunday, October 18, at 2 p.m., which is the once-a-year afternoon of art and amazement at Laguna Gloria, with all proceeds benefiting The Contemporary Austin's K-12 arts education programs.
Parking is the standing wrinkle. There is no dedicated parking lot on site, so visitors typically find parking on the surrounding streets, and planning your visit during weekdays or earlier in the day can help secure a spot. If you live in Tarrytown proper, the honest answer is to walk or bike in on 35th.
The parks, the peacocks, and the lake
Two blocks from Laguna Gloria sits the other reason people fall for this pocket of Austin. Mayfield Park and Preserve, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was given to the city of Austin by Mary Mayfield Gutsch, and its peacocks, koi ponds, water lilies, and 21 acres of footpaths and wildlife habitat sit next door to Laguna Gloria. A Thursday evening loop through Mayfield, the sculpture park, and a lantern tour is a summer ritual that costs nothing and burns off two hours cleanly.
If the plan is a longer afternoon on the water, the old standbys remain the right calls. A number of cool local hangouts and restaurants take advantage of stunning lake views and even lake access, including Hula Hut, Ables on the Lake, and Mozart's Coffee Shop. None of these are new. That is the point. In a summer where the commercial corner of the neighborhood is in mid-turnover, the lake edge is the constant.
The block is not being replaced. It is being edited. A new restaurant at 3110 Windsor, a new landlord across Exposition, a family pharmacy in its 84th year, and a museum at the end of 35th that is quietly one of the best free Thursday evenings in Austin. If you have lived here a while, the summer of 2026 is the first one in several that will look meaningfully different a year from now.
A note for neighbors thinking longer term
For homeowners who follow the neighborhood the way you might follow a slow-moving story, the through-line here is worth naming. Retail turnover on Windsor and Exposition is one of the more honest indicators of how Tarrytown will feel in five years. Not median price. Not days on market. The tenants at the corner. When the pharmacy that opened the day before Pearl Harbor is still there, and a first-time brick-and-mortar from a well-loved East Austin truck opens across the parking lot, the neighborhood is doing the thing it has always done well, which is absorb new energy without shedding its own memory.
If you would like a private conversation about what any of this means for your home, or about how Tarrytown's commercial refresh is shaping demand on your street, Michael Reisor and the REISOR.TEAM are available for a discreet, one-on-one consultation. Request a Private Valuation to begin.
