Los Angeles-born Urth Caffé is officially making a Texas play, with a flagship headed to East Cesar Chavez in Austin. City and state records point to plans to turn a historic house on the 1000 block into a full-service café, backed by an attached bakery commissary. The project marks the brand's first step into the Texas market and follows a recent flurry of permit activity tied to the site.
Documents filed with the City of Austin identify the project as "URTH CAFFÉ" at 1010 East Cesar Chavez Street and include architectural drawings for a 3,311-square-foot renovation plus a new wood-framed wing. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation project page lists the job as a roughly $2.3 million renovation with a June 1, 2025, construction start and an April 28, 2026, completion date.
According to the Austin Business Journal, the local licensees say they plan to open around 10 Urth locations across Texas and are already scouting a second Austin site. The Urth Caffé licensing page says the brand "is looking for strong, qualified operators who can exclusively license and develop our brand in a premium territory," a framework that lines up neatly with a multi-site rollout.
Design and preservation
The design duties are credited to Matt Fajkus Architecture, whose cover sheet appears on the plans and lists Ingrid Gonzalez Featherston as the project contact. The drawings call for a porch and trellis along the Medina Street elevation, a gable-roofed addition on the Cesar Chavez side, and conversion of the rear outbuilding into a bakery commissary. The approach aims to keep the building's historic form intact while layering in full café service.
Timeline and the broader push
State records also show a companion TDLR registration for an Urth bakery commissary at 104 Medina Street, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, signaling a paired buildout in the immediate area. The filings list Haidar Properties, with contact Adam Haidar, as owner, and if the schedules hold, both projects are set to wrap in late April 2026, paving the way for openings later that spring.
The arrival of a national specialty café brand on East Cesar Chavez, a corridor that city documents identify as historically significant, is likely to draw close attention from neighbors and preservation advocates as construction ramps up. For now, the filings and a newly created Texas site for the licensee point to a sizable multi-location push, with more specifics expected to surface as permits and tenant details get locked in.
