Michelin Guide-recognized restaurant Poeta will kick off 2026 in a brand new home.

The details: The Italian restaurant, helmed by chefs Krystal Craig and Ian Thurwachter, will open inside East Austin Hotel in January. A celebratory New Year's Day brunch will kick off the opening Jan. 1, while the restaurant will fully reopen to the public Jan. 8, according to a news release.

Poeta's new location will bring back the à la carte menu format, alongside its more recently offered chef’s tasting menu. The space includes an upstairs patio, lounge and bar in addition to free, on-site parking.

The background: This move will mark the third reopening of Poeta. In February, the eatery left its spot at The Frances Modern Inn and moved to what was formerly Swoop House in East Austin in the spring, as previously reported by Community Impact.

What they offer: Poeta’s menu offers daily housemade pastas and locally sourced ingredients, according to a news release.

• 1108 E. Sixth St., Austin

From new design plans and major contract bidding to legal hurdles and progress toward billions in federal funding, these six updates track how Austin’s light rail endeavor, Project Connect, advanced throughout 2025.

1. Light Rail preliminary design plans released
The agency tasked with building the city’s light rail, Austin Transit Partnership, released a draft of its environmental impact study Jan. 10, kicking off the first in a series of major milestones slated for the upcoming year.

The document outlines several proposed adaptations from the last plans released for the rail system, which date back to 2023, when transit officials reduced plans for the rail by roughly half.

2. ATP recognized for community focus
Project Connect was honored March 26 by local nonprofit Community Advancement Network for the initiative's work toward collaboratively addressing community needs.

3. ATP opens bidding for $3B Austin light rail contract
Austin Transit Partnership officially launched the agency’s official solicitation process for a design and construction contract worth an estimated $3 billion.

City leaders have detailed how more than $5 million of Austin's social service contract funding will be reallocated to support the city's fiscal year 2025-26 budget. The service shifts and cuts follow the failure of Proposition Q's tax hike and passage of a trimmed city spending plan this fall.

The details: Finance staff reported during this fall's budget revisions that many city social service initiatives would face reductions. Nearly a month later, those changes were detailed in a memo from City Manager T.C. Broadnax shared with council members Dec. 17.

A total of $5.28 million of Austin's more than $74 million allocation for social services will be reduced or reallocated, mostly covering public health and homelessness response. Nearly $17 million across social service contracts is projected to be cut next year.

The city will continue to look into social service contracting this year, including possible program mergers and updated performance measures, as part of a wider citywide efficiency process launched this fall.

Austin’s attempt to keep in place a local ordinance limiting low-level marijuana enforcement has likely ended more than three years after city voters adopted it.

Residents passed the “Austin Freedom Act,” or Proposition A, in May 2022. The two-part ballot measure prevented local enforcement of some drug-related misdemeanors including marijuana possession, and also banned Austin police from executing “no-knock” search warrants.

Attorney General Ken Paxton sued several cities including Austin over similar marijuana enforcement policies last year, claiming they conflicted with Texas drug laws, and an appeals court eventually sided with the state's push to block Austin's policy. The city sought further review of its case from the Texas Supreme Court, which was denied in December.