Alteño opens Austin outpost from chef Johnny Curiel

Alteño, chef Johnny Curiel's wood-fire Mexican restaurant, has opened on the ground floor of 1 Hotel Austin at 96 Red River St, its third location after two in Colorado.

Third Alteño location opens in Austin

The restaurant occupies the hotel's street level in the Rainey Street district, where Waller Creek meets Lady Bird Lake. 1 Hotel Austin itself opened September 17, 2026, inside the 74-story Waterline tower, the tallest building in Texas, with 252 rooms including 60 suites, according to the hotel's opening release.

Opening a restaurant in Austin has been a dream for a long time.

Curiel and his wife, Kasie Curiel, run Alteño through Fonda Fina Hospitality, the group behind Alma Fonda Fina in Denver, which holds a Michelin star. The Michelin Guide lists Alteño itself as Recommended, one tier below that star.

The Austin menu centers on wood fire. Pan de elote, a jalapeño cornbread with huitlacoche butter, runs $21, the same corn base behind Amuse's elote recipe. Pollo a las brasas, chicken cooked whole over live fire, and huachinango zarandeado, a butterflied red snapper grilled the same way, anchor the mains. Langosta al chileatole, lobster set into a thick corn-and-chile chileatole soup, is the kitchen's most ambitious plate. The bar pours more than 40 mezcals, per the hotel.

"Opening a restaurant in Austin has been a dream for a long time," Curiel said.

Recipes rooted in the Jaliscan highlands

Curiel grew up in a restaurant family in Guadalajara and built his name on cooking from Los Altos de Jalisco, the fire-driven, whole-animal style of Mexico's highland ranches. That style earned him a James Beard Best New Restaurant nomination in 2025, a spot on Esquire's best-new-restaurants list the same year, and Michelin Colorado's Young Chef award in 2024.

Austin is Alteño's third address, after the Denver flagship and ahead of a planned Charleston opening, Hoodline reported in April 2026 when the deal first surfaced. Any Michelin recognition here would follow Texas's own new habit of skipping the ceremony: this year's Michelin Guide Texas selection arrived as a press release, not a gala.

Charleston is next on Fonda Fina Hospitality's list, with no opening date set yet. Until then, this fire-driven cooking has only one other home, in Denver.