The Backyard at The Peached Tortilla is now open in Cedar Park, featuring a new playscape and outdoor dining area as well as a separate menu from the indoor dining room that includes familiar favorites. The family-oriented expansion debuted Feb. 17 and will serve as a more "laid back" extension of Austin's The Peached Tortilla, according to a news release.

Main course: The new menu includes dinner dishes like the banh mi taco, which features Vietnamese braised pork belly, pickled daikon carrot, sriracha mayo and cilantro.

During lunch hours, The Peached Tortilla lunch menu will also be available to order from in The Backyard. The restaurant also offers a kids' menu.

The background: The concept opened its Cedar Park restaurant in March 2024, bringing a mix of Asian and Southern-inspired dishes. The new location was a significant milestone for the brand, according to founder Eric Silverstein.

• 1915 E. Whitestone Blvd., Ste. 105, Cedar Park

Apex Pickleball Clubs is now open in Cedar Park with 16 courts, certified coaches and a built-in restaurant and bar—PickleDilly’s. The new indoor sports facility held an open house Feb. 7-8 and officially opened to the public on Feb. 9, according to co-owner Nathan Parodi. Apex Pickleball Clubs and PickleDilly’s are owned by Bill Parodi, Shelia Parodi, Nathan Parod and Jim Sweeney.

What they offer: The pickleball club offers private and group lessons, leagues, clinics and a pro shop with paddles and balls, according to the company's website. They also have locker rooms and party rooms for birthday celebrations and events.

On the menu: Patrons can enjoy courtside dining at the facility's on-site restaurant PickleDilly’s, with burgers, salads, sandwiches, steak frites and more. The bar menu also features a soft pretzel, pickle platter, charcuterie board and marinated olives.

Major takeaways: The 49,000-square-foot complex offers single, couples and family memberships. However, visitors do not need to be members to make court reservations online, the website states.

• 501 Cypress Creek Road, Cedar Park

Austin is readying for the arrival of teledriving vehicles, or cars remotely controlled by humans, that'd join several autonomous vehicle operations as emerging mobility technologies that have become commonplace on city roadways.

The details: The city is currently in negotiations with a company seeking to bring its teleoperations to Austin in the coming months. The cars would be controlled via the cellular network and could face local oversight, unlike AVs.

City staff are actively working to establish basic operating standards for the new vehicles once they arrive. Due to competitive issues and proprietary information, the company now under consideration can't be revealed as of mid-February.

Teledriving could officially launch in town this spring or summer once an initial civic agreement with the business is finalized, likely with a smaller fleet in a small footprint like downtown. Staff are also planning to develop a new city ordinance for City Council consideration covering basic rules and guidelines for the technology.

The Lower Colorado River Authority is conducting studies to determine if a site northwest of Eagle Lake in Colorado County would be suitable for a new, larger water reservoir. 

The details: LCRA already owns the 2,000-acre site, which could add over 13 billion gallons to the Central Texas water supply amid growing water needs. 

Two-minute impact: The river authority, which supplies water and hydroelectric power to many communities throughout Central Texas, is exploring plans to build a new reservoir that could hold up to 90,000 acre feet of water. That would make it larger than the recently opened Arbuckle Reservoir, or two to three times the capacity of Lake Travis. 

Why now? A new reservoir off the river authority's main channel was established in its Water Supply Resource Report, an overview of strategies to address regional water needs, that was approved last year, according to a Feb. 19 news release.