Check out the latest business updates in Northwest Austin, including businesses opening, closing and relocating. 

Now open 
Spicy House
The restaurant serves dan dan noodles, konjac beer duck, pork with spicy garlic sauce and chili oil pork dumplings. The drink menu includes a honeydew melon smoothie.

• Opened in January

• 11630 N. RM 620, Austin

Coming soon 
Birds Barbershop
Owners Michael Portman and Jayson Rapaport will expand Birds Barbershop this summer with its tenth location in Austin, according to a representative from the business. The barbershop offers color services, cuts and styling. 

• Opening in July 

• 9900 W. Parmer Lane, Ste. A-215, Austin

Austin has adopted a new process with increased public scrutiny for the city's procurement of surveillance-related technology, following pushback against previous public camera programs.

The details: The focus on Austin's potential procurement of technology that collects personal information comes after the recent consideration of millions of dollars in contracts for surveillance technology across the city, including the police department's use of automated license plate readers and a proposed parks department camera program.

Also of note: An ordinance adopted in April now requires city departments considering the use of surveillance-related technology to get formal City Council approval before doing so. It also includes other public reporting requirements, including the creation of privacy impact statements for any proposed contracts for such technology.

Camp Mystic, the Texas Hill Country camp where 28 people died in catastrophic flooding last summer, announced April 30 that it will not welcome campers this summer.

The background: The decision comes nearly 10 months after 25 young campers, two teenage counselors and the camp’s executive director, Dick Eastland, died as the Guadalupe River camp flooded July 4. Camp Mystic’s owners had planned to open a secondary campsite called Cypress Lake in late May, but backed down at the urging of flood victims’ families and state lawmakers.

What's happening: A spokesperson for the Department of State Health Services, which licenses youth camps, confirmed to Community Impact that Camp Mystic had withdrawn its application to operate in summer 2026. 

In a statement, Camp Mystic officials said they did not want to “unintentionally effect further harm” on flood victims and their families.

"We also recognize that over 800 girls want to return to Camp Mystic Cypress Lake this summer," they wrote. "Our special bond with our Camp Mystic families does not change or end with the announcement."