Fonda San Miguel owner opening new Mexican restaurant serving breakfast and lunch

One of Austin’s oldest restaurants is trying something new.

Fonda San Miguel owner Tom Gilliland has long toyed with ideas for the Allandale property at 2330 N. Loop Blvd. that is home to his beloved interior Mexican restaurant, which turns 50 next year.

He recently announced that he will convert the land east of his restaurant’s garden into a new restaurant called Tzintzuntzan. The new space, with a name that translates to “place of hummingbirds,” will focus on meals not offered at Fonda San Miguel: breakfast and lunch.

The building and grounds, which will connect to Fonda San Miguel via a courtyard and the existing garden, will be designed in collaboration with Austin firm Miró Rivera Architects , who are currently working on the phase two expansion of the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center near Lady Bird Lake.

“It’s long been our aspiration to expand the scope of what Fonda provides its patrons for dinner by creating a new space where our menu offerings would be extended to include regional Mexican dishes for desayuno y almuerzo, along with extraordinary items from a genuine panadería,” Gilliland said in a release.

The menu, for which there are currently few details, will be overseen by Natalie Gazaui, the executive pastry chef at Fonda San Miguel, whose long Austin resume includes work with McGuire Moorman Lambert Hospitality.

Fonda San Miguel changed the way Austinites think about Mexican food

Gilliland, whose decades-long love affair with the art, cuisine and culture of Mexico began when he first visited Mexico City as a University of Texas law student in 1967, opened Fonda San Miguel with chef Miguel Ravago in 1975. At the time, most Austinites’ thoughts about Mexican food generally included the shredded lettuce, orange cheese and refried beans associated with Tex-Mex.

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Gilliand and Ravago, who passed in 2017, introduced many diners to the regional cuisines of Puebla, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Yucatan. That meant cochinita pibil, moles and chile rellenos, dishes that are de rigueur at dozens of Austin restaurants now. The restaurant was part of the inaugural class of the Austin360 Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2021 .

After changing how Austinites thought about Mexican cuisine almost 50 years ago, Gilliland will now attempt to shift the way locals approach morning and daytime dining.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fonda San Miguel owner opening new Mexican restaurant serving breakfast and lunch