Salt Lick BBQ is planning a new wine-tasting space and a second restaurant in Fredericksburg at The Sycamore development on the Highway 290 Wine Trail. The Salt Lick Cellars project will be about 5,913 square feet with a valuation near $2.4 million, and construction is scheduled from May 2026 through September 2027.
The development also includes a separate restaurant called “Sombra at Sycamore,” valued around $3 million at the same site, according to MySA. Details are preliminary, so timelines and costs may change as planning and construction progress.
What The Sycamore Will House
The Sycamore is being marketed as a 117-acre mixed-use lifestyle center, built around a long central promenade, landscaped public space and clusters of retail and food tenants aimed squarely at Highway 290 Wine Trail traffic. Earlier announcements said Salt Lick would anchor the site with a roughly 9,000-square-foot restaurant and patio, alongside a Salt Lick tasting room and other shops and restaurants. That blueprint was laid out when the project broke ground in 2023, then revisited as new permit records surfaced, according to coverage by Express-News.
Timing And The Menu Concepts
Construction on the main Salt Lick restaurant in Fredericksburg reportedly started in September 2025 for a 9,323-square-foot build, with completion initially targeted for October 2026. The Salt Lick Cellars tasting room is set to follow, scheduled to begin work in May 2026 and finish in September 2027, according to the state filing cited by MySA. The same permitting run lists a separate restaurant called Sombra at Sycamore, and local reporting notes that concept is expected to be developed in partnership with Chef Diego Gonzales of San Antonio’s Los Azulejos. All of these dates and dollar figures come from administrative filings and press reports, so they should be treated as moving targets as the project progresses.
Salt Lick's Hill Country Footprint
The Salt Lick name is already baked into the Hill Country dining circuit. The brand operates a vineyard and tasting room next to its flagship Driftwood restaurant and runs additional outposts in Round Rock and at airport terminals, which makes the Fredericksburg expansion another high-profile step for the long-running operation. The Driftwood restaurant and its neighboring Salt Lick Cellars remain the company’s base of operations and are listed on the official site. More information for visitors is available from Salt Lick BBQ.
What This Means For Fredericksburg
Fredericksburg has seen a steady wave of hotels, restaurants and retail developments in recent years, and The Sycamore ranks among the larger private projects aimed at capitalizing on Hill Country tourism. Local coverage has highlighted growing pains, including traffic and pressure on water resources, as ongoing concerns for residents and officials weighing new approvals. At the same time, the arrival of a Salt Lick tasting room and an additional culinary concept at The Sycamore is expected to boost visitor traffic and local jobs, even as city leaders and neighbors work to balance that growth with Fredericksburg’s small-town character, reporting by Express-News notes.
