Persian pop-up Roya to open North Austin brick-and-mortar restaurant
Persian pop-up Roya is set to open its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in North Austin this fall.
Meet the chef: Roya is owned and operated by chef Amir Hajimaleki who also owns several other Austin restaurants. He has served Roya's Persian cuisine at exclusive pop-up dinners across the Austin area since 2018.
On the menu: The seasonally rotating menu will feature traditional Persian dishes with "minor modern tweaks" by Hajimaleki. A few mainstays will include:
Royal Egg, or a savory egg custard with caviar, labneh and a chive blossom garnish
Gormeh sabzi, or an herb stew made with short rib
Kashke bademjan, or eggplant dip
Caviar service
Also on the menu will be cocktails such as an Albaloo, or a Persian sour cherry margarita; Persian cucumber mint cooler with gin, sekanjabin and narange; and a tumeric honey-infused whiskey sour. Desserts will be done by Dennis Van, who currently serves as pastry chef for all of Hajimaleki's concepts.
Austin ISD to hold school consolidation meetings as 12 failing campuses require intervention
Twelve Austin ISD campuses may be at risk of closing or undergoing other major changes.
What's happening: The district will be required to close or restart these schools after each campus received three F ratings from the Texas Education Agency, AISD officials announced Sept. 3 in a letter to families.
Something to note: This summer, AISD began a school consolidation process to close and merge some campuses in the 2026-27 school year due to budgetary constraints and declining enrollment. While AISD didn't use A-F ratings to rank campuses for potential consolidation, the 2025 ratings may now limit the district's ability to combine campuses, Superintendent Matias Segura said in a letter posted to the district’s website.
Learn more: On Sept. 9, 10 and 15, the district will host virtual meetings to inform community members about its school consolidation process from 6-8 p.m. on Zoom.
Update: Construction progress along Airport Boulevard nears completion
After a year of steady work, crews are closing in on completing mobility upgrades along Airport Boulevard in North Austin. The $3.8 million project, part of the city’s larger corridor improvement program, is about 80% finished, according to a Sept. 3 city update. While completion was originally projected for May, substantial completion is now expected by mid-October 2025, weather permitting.
The details: Current work includes finishing a shared-use path on Bruning Avenue, wiring for a new pedestrian signal at Airport and 55th Street, and bike lane improvements on the east side of Airport. Next steps involve extending the shared-use path to 51st Street and temporarily shifting Bruning Avenue traffic to one-way to allow repaving. Crews also plan to install mountable curbs near Lamme’s Candy and add a new bus stop at Bruning Avenue.
Once complete, the corridor between 45th and 55th streets will feature new shared-use paths, upgraded signals, and safer pedestrian crossings—part of the city’s $1.5 billion Corridor Construction Program approved by voters in 2016.
What to know: Most Texas school districts required to display donated Ten Commandments posters under state law
Most Texas public schools are required to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms under Senate Bill 10, a state law that took effect Sept. 1.
The details: On Aug. 20, a Texas federal judge temporarily blocked the following 11 school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments:
Alamo Heights ISD
Austin ISD
Cy-Fair ISD
Dripping Springs ISD
Fort Bend ISD
Houston ISD
Lackland ISD
Lake Travis ISD
North East ISD
Northside ISD
Plano ISD
Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the ruling and directed other school districts to begin displaying donated copies of the Ten Commandments.
The debate: Proponents of SB 10, including Paxton and Republican state lawmakers, have argued that seeing the Ten Commandments on a daily basis will help Texas students better understand U.S. history and learn about morality.
Some religious scholars have stressed the importance of teaching students about religion in an “appropriate educational context.” Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns that non-Christian students will feel left out or be bullied by their peers for not following the Ten Commandments.
