The serious dinners
Downtown
Otto's German Bistro
The most interesting cooking in Fredericksburg — German technique and Texas ingredients, done with real intent rather than as a theme. Small room, short menu, and the reservation to make first. If you eat one proper dinner in town, eat it here.
Main Street
Vaudeville Bistro
A design store and gallery upstairs, a bistro downstairs. Refined, seasonal, and the most contemporary room in town. Good for a dinner where the food is the event rather than the accompaniment.
At Cotton Gin Village
Cabernet Grill
An all-Texas wine list of remarkable depth — hundreds of Texas bottles — paired with straightforward, well-executed Hill Country cooking. This is the restaurant for the person in your group who has spent the day getting interested in Texas wine and wants to keep going.
Main Street
Hill & Vine
Modern Texas cooking in a converted house with a patio. Reliable, comfortable, and easier to get into than Otto's on short notice.
German and old-world
Main Street
Der Lindenbaum
Schnitzel, jaeger sauce, rouladen, and red cabbage in a limestone building on Main. Unreconstructed and unapologetic. Exactly what you came to a German town for.
Main Street
Auslander
A biergarten and restaurant with a long beer list, a big patio, and live music most weekends. The most dependable place in town for a group that cannot agree on anything.
Main Street
Altdorf Biergarten
Shaded outdoor tables, cold beer, sausage and schnitzel. The right place to land at five in the afternoon after a day of tasting, when nobody wants a formal dinner yet.
Main Street
Old German Bakery & Restaurant
Breakfast, pastries, and German plates in a cheerfully old-fashioned room. The breakfast to eat before a wine day, because you will need it.
Austin Wine Car
BBQ or biergarten, built into the day
Our Fredericksburg experiences include an optional stop — slow-smoked Texas BBQ at Junebug's, or an afternoon at Altdorf Biergarten in the historic German district.
Not ready to book?
BBQ and Texas
Near town
Junebug's BBQ
Backyard-style Hill Country BBQ — slow-smoked meat, outdoor seating, live music. The stop we build into our Wine & Smoke day, and a much better use of an afternoon than another indoor tasting room.
Main Street
Hondo's on Main
A big, easy Texas restaurant and bar with a courtyard, named for Hondo Crouch of Luckenbach fame. Burgers, enchiladas, live music. Good for a group with mixed appetites.
Main Street
Crossroads Steakhouse & Saloon
Steaks and a saloon room, for the night when someone in the group announces they want beef.
Breakfast, coffee and bakeries
Main Street
Emma + Ollie
A bakery and cafe doing genuinely excellent pastries and breakfast. The line is real on weekend mornings and worth it.
Downtown
Fredericksburg Pie Company
Exactly what the name says, done extremely well. Peach in season. Buy a whole one for the drive home.
Main Street
Old German Bakery
Strudel, kolaches, and a proper cooked breakfast. The traditional option.
Peaches and the roadside
From May through August, the peach stands along Highway 290 east of town are a genuine attraction rather than a novelty. Das Peach Haus, Vogel Orchard, and Burg's Corner are the best known, selling fruit picked that week along with cobbler, ice cream, jams, and preserves. If you are driving the corridor in summer, budget twenty minutes for a stop. Some are cash-friendly and rural about card readers, so carry a little.
Eating on the wine corridor
This is the practical problem nobody warns you about: the twenty-five miles between Fredericksburg and Johnson City is thin on lunch. If your day is on the corridor, sort out the middle of it before you leave.
- Several of the larger estates have a kitchen, a bistro, or a food truck — Grape Creek's bistro is the most reliable of these.
- A BBQ stop, planned in advance, is the most satisfying solution and the one we build into our own days.
- Johnson City's downtown has enough options to anchor a lunch at the eastern end.
- A few wineries permit outside food in designated areas. Many do not. Ask when you book rather than assuming.
- Do not plan to drive back into Fredericksburg for lunch and then out again. That is forty minutes of highway for a sandwich.