Which building on Austin Highway has had the most lives? Good candidates include the one at 1133. It started as a Humble gas station and later became a gourmet food store. It has held an Italian restaurant, a Mexican restaurant and, for 29 years, Silo. This fall it changed again.
Austin Highway rarely starts from scratch. New businesses on the strip usually move into a building that was something else first. This fall's additions fit that pattern: an oyster tavern in a former filling station and a salon in a former auto body shop. A white-tablecloth dining room is also on the way, more than half a century after Bun 'n' Barrel opened the strip's first one up the hill.
A Gas Station, a Food Store, an Oyster Bar
The San Antonio Express-News reported on Oct. 13 that Silo Alamo Heights has moved to the downstairs level of the building it shares with La Fogata Mexican Cuisine and reopened as Silo Oyster Tavern. The new room is in the space that once held the Humble gas station and later the Farm to Market food store.
Few addresses in 78209 have changed hands this many times:
| Space at 1133 Austin Highway | What it was | What it is now |
|---|---|---|
| Ground level | Humble gas station, then Farm to Market gourmet food store | Silo Oyster Tavern |
| Silo's former upstairs room | Silo Alamo Heights for 29 years | Planned site of a white-tablecloth Nonna Osteria |
| The neighboring space | Nosh, an Italian restaurant led by chef Luca Della Casa, from 2012 to 2020 | La Fogata Mexican Cuisine since 2022 |
The menu was rebuilt for the new name. The Express-News listed fresh East Coast oysters every day, along with Silo's chicken-fried oysters, mussels, lobster mac and cheese, a lobster roll, a burger, blackened redfish, Parmesan-crusted chicken, beef tenderloin and shrimp and grits. When the story ran, dinner started at 5 p.m. seven nights a week. Owner Patrick Richardson said lunch would follow the next week, with hours of 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Check Silo's Alamo Heights page before you count on a midday table.
Silo's move also frees up its old upstairs room. Richardson describes the restaurant planned there as a "white-tablecloth" version of his Italian concept, Nonna Osteria, led by Della Casa. That brings the chef back to the building where he cooked at Nosh. The Express-News called the restaurant upcoming and gave no opening date.
The Tablecloth Was Here Before
Austin Highway has had a white-tablecloth room before, and it was a short walk from 1133.
In a March 2026 Express-News feature on San Antonio's iconic empty buildings, the paper traced Bun 'n' Barrel, at 1150 Austin Highway, to 1950. That year, World War II buddies Gordon Biggs and Courtney Broussard bought the newly built drive-in and went into business together. The two Air Force veterans later added the barrel-topped barbecue pit out back. In 1957 they opened the Bun 'n' Barrel Terrace up the incline next door, an upscale dining room where diners could order a charcoal-broiled steak over a tablecloth instead of eating a burger in the car.
That 1957 room is still open as a restaurant. The Terrace became Tong's Thai in 1996, and the Tong's owners bought Bun 'n' Barrel itself in 2007. Tong's Thai lists its address as 1146 Austin Highway and its hours as 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, with online ordering.
The drive-in itself has not had a second act yet. According to the same Express-News feature, Bun 'n' Barrel had been "temporarily" closed since at least 2022. In February 2020, the owners had planned to move the barbecue menu into the smokehouse behind the drive-in as a separate business, and the pandemic stopped that plan. As of the spring, Valentine's Day hearts were still painted on the windows, and the drive-in's only activity was the neon at night and overflow parking for Tong's. The building is still well known. It was a backdrop in the 1997 film "Selena," and Guy Fieri featured it on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" in an episode that aired in 2011.
When the Nonna Osteria room opens, it will bring the strip's steak-and-tablecloth tradition back to a building within sight of the neon sign where that tradition began.
518 Austin Highway, From Body Shop to Aveda Salon
The pattern holds at the Broadway end of the strip. K Charles & Co., an Aveda salon, lists its Alamo Heights location at 518 Austin Highway. In a June post on its own site, the salon announced that it was leaving Broadway and would open on Austin Highway on June 23.
The San Antonio Business Journal reports that the property used to be an auto body shop and convenience store. The Business Journal also reports a grand opening for the new location on Wednesday, Nov. 11. That puts a public event on a stretch where many of the oldest buildings were built for cars.
The salon's old space is getting a new tenant too. The Express-News reported on Oct. 21 that Zeds Ice Cream plans to open by summer 2027 at 7959 Broadway in the Collection at Broadway & Sunset, taking the former K. Charles & Co. space. So one salon's move fills a former body shop on Austin Highway and frees a storefront on Broadway for an ice cream shop.
The Ones Still on Paper
The strip's next arrival does not have a firm date. In April, What Now San Antonio reported a planned Hawaiian Bros at 1434 Austin Highway, with a developer estimate of a March 2027 opening. The project has already changed shape. A 2025 state filing described a 2,337-square-foot ground-up restaurant scheduled for February through May 2026. The current Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing describes a 1,888-square-foot space in a multi-tenant project. It lists a start date of Sept. 12, 2026, a completion date of Feb. 14, 2027, and a status of "Review Complete." The filing is a schedule; it does not show that construction has started.
Nonna Osteria, planned for Silo's old upstairs room at 1133, does not have a published opening date either.
The Strip From Broadway Out, Address by Address
Driving northeast from Broadway, the strip currently looks like this:
- 518 Austin Highway, K Charles & Co. An Aveda salon in a former auto body shop and convenience store. Its grand opening is Wednesday, Nov. 11.
- 1133 Austin Highway, Silo Oyster Tavern and La Fogata. Oysters and Silo standards on the ground level, Mexican food in the former Nosh space, and Nonna Osteria planned for the old upstairs room. Silo Alamo Heights ranked seventh on the Express-News list of the top 10 restaurants in the 78209 ZIP code in January, before the move downstairs.
- 1146 Austin Highway, Tong's Thai. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Bun 'n' Barrel's 1957 Terrace dining room.
- 1150 Austin Highway, Bun 'n' Barrel. Closed since at least 2022, though its neon was still lighting up at night as of the spring.
- 1271 Austin Highway, Thousand Oaks Cafe II. The other Austin Highway restaurant on the same Express-News top 10 list.
- 1434 Austin Highway, Hawaiian Bros. Planned, with state filings pointing to early 2027.
The newest names on that list are in the oldest buildings, and the next round of changes points the same way. Bakke has written before about how this summer's changes along Broadway and on the Olmos Park side of McCullough also happened inside existing storefronts.
The space at 1133 has been a Humble station, Farm to Market and now Silo Oyster Tavern, and each new tenant has found a use for the same walls. If you are wondering what your own home's history and current condition mean for its value, Cory Bakke can walk through it with you in a private home valuation.
