- Press -

The Chicago-based restaurant group that brought Aba to Austin — which means “father” in Hebrew — is now opening another restaurant in town called Ema, meaning “mother.”

Lettuce Entertain You will open the new restaurant in the fall at 3120 Palm Way, suite 170, in the Domain Northside. It will replace Valencia’s Tex-Mex Garage.

Ema will offer a mezze-style menu made up of Mediterranean small plates. The restaurant will have indoor and outdoor bar and dining space, according to an announcement. “We are thrilled to bring Ema’s lighter style of cooking to Texas,” Marc Jacobs, Lettuce Entertain You’s executive partner and divisional president, said in a statement. “We are grateful to be a part of Austin’s growing dining scene, and we look forward to expanding into Domain Northside and the surrounding neighborhood.”

This will mark the first Ema location in Texas and third overall for the company. The estimated cost of the project is $4 million, according to a late November filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. It should be noted that information in these filings is preliminary and subject to change.

Officials declined to provide additional comment on the company’s plans.

Ema’s sister restaurant, Aba, has proved to be a destination in Austin. Between January and October of this year, the restaurant — which also offers a mezze-style menu of Mediterranean small plates — clocked $5.1 million in on-premise alcohol sales, according to the latest data rom the Texas comptroller’s office. Over its lifetime on South Congress, beginning October 2020 through October 2024, Aba made more than $20.6 million in alcohol sales.