New Wine Restaurant, Bar, and Shop Golden Hour Is Opening in Austin

A new wine cafe and bottle store is opening in South Austin this year. Golden Hour will open at 7731 Menchaca Road, Suite 100 sometime this late summer.

Owner and chef Barclay Stratton was in search of something in South Austin that offered good coffee, wine, and food since that’s where he lives, rather than travel across the river. “I wanted to open a European-style cafe/wine bar focusing on the low-intervention/natural wines I’ve experienced with food that I know and love,” he tells Eater over email. He had been working on his idea since 2018.

Golden’s wine menu will focus on serving and selling natural and low-intervention wines. Owner and chef Barclay Stratton is expecting to have a list of 80 to 90 options sourced internationally, with the aim to carry “playful, funky stuff,” and also be able to introduce people to these types of wines, as he explains to Eater over email.

For dinner, the menu will make use of local, quality, and seasonal ingredients. Expect raw bar items like hamachi crudo, Alabama oysters, and Gulf squid; as well as blood sausages, macaroni gratin, pastillas (North African meat or seafood pies), and lots of vegetables. During breakfast hours, Golden will serve up pastries and baked goods like cakes, tarts, and both sweet and savory eclairs, as well as coffee made with beans from Houston’s Amaya Roasting Co. And for all-day snacks, there will be charcuterie, butter, bread, and some other smaller dishes.

Stratton will preview Golden’s menu during one of Lenoir’s guest chef dinners this summer. His will take place on Wednesday, August 24, and could potentially include dishes like foie gras with mustang grapes, duck rillette on sourdough, wood-grilled peached with duck offal, and whipped cheese with tomatoes.

Before embarking on Golden, Stratton helped open New American restaurant Lenoir in 2012, and he thinks of co-owners Todd Duplechan and Jessica Maher as his mentos and friends. Before that, he worked in various New York restaurants, including Blue Hill, as well as a restaurant in the Italian town of San Quirico d’ Orcia of Tuscany; Nashville’s restaurant group Strategic Hospitality; and OvenBird in Birmingham, Alabama. In Austin, he also worked with bakery and beer garden mini-chain Easy Tiger and barbecue restaurant the Switch.

The physical space is being designed by McGray & Co. in an aesthetic described as “Southwestern minimalism” by the firm. Golden Hour is found within the Perch Apartments development.

When Golden opens, its hours will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and then from 5 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday. It will offer counter-service during breakfast with limited table service, and full table-service for dinner.

Wine bars/restaurants/stores are popping up all over Austin this year. Westlake wine shop and tasting room Neighborhood Vintner opened in early June. Opening later this fall are Underdog, a wine restaurant and bottle shop opening on South First in the fall; and Vintage Bookstore and Wine Bar, a — naturally — book store and wine bar opening on East 11th.