At Austin’s The Guest House, Dinner Is A Vibe With Celebrity Waiters And More

The Guest House is downtown Austin's new dinner hot spot.

Roger Ho

The Guest House, a vibe-dining destination unlike anything Austin has ever seen, will add even more sizzle to its steak with its Celebrity Waiter Night on Friday, July 12.

The charity event, presented by inKind (which has financed the Guest House and more than 1,700 other restaurants around the country), will support organizations including The Fair Catch Foundation, a nonprofit that gives underserved youth access to athletic equipment. Guest waiters will include NFL players like Micah Parsons (Dallas Cowboys), C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans), Justin Fields (Pittsburgh Steelers), Jalen Ramsey (Miami Dolphins) and Jordan Love (Green Bay Packers) alongside ESPN’s Ryan Clark. Ja maal Charles, who played for NFL teams including the Kansas City Chiefs, will be in the DJ booth. Table reservations, starting at $2,500 for two people and $4,000 for four people, can be made by e-mailing faircatchfoundation@gmail.com.

This will be the latest star-studded night at The Guest House, which debuted like a rocket in February and has attracted celebrity guests like NBA legend Michael Jordan, Steve Aoki and Gary Clark Jr.

Chicken a la Raj adds another dimension to Milanese.

The Guest House

During the weekend of the CMT Music Awards in April, we spotted billionaire lawyer Thomas J. Henry taking over the patio of the downtown restaurant with about 30 friends one night after he threw a $5 million birthday party with performances from Jack Harlow and Aoki. One of Henry’s guests walked from the patio into the dining room (pulsating with energy from a crowd that included country-music stars, an Airbnb co-founder, a prominent East Coast investor and a model from Los Angeles who was there because she saw The Guest House on Instagram) and immediately said, ‘Oh wow!”

Cocktails like the Magic Mushroom give guests a show during dinner.

The Guest House

The Guest House, which features a DJ seven nights a week and had Cedric Gervais spinning (and enjoying spicy rigatoni) during South by Southwest, obviously feels like a party. But this is a party with serious and crowd-pleasing food from veteran chef Todd Mark Miller (who cooked at Miami’s Gotham Steak and also worked in top Vegas kitchens run by luminaries including Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Julian Serrano).

There’s a habit-forming version of spicy rigatoni, ossetra caviar toast, extensive raw bar selections, a wagyu French onion burger, a 40-day dry-aged bone-in rib eye and a delightful riff on chicken Milanese with a creamy green sauce powered by pistachios. And for the influencer crowd or anybody who wants dinner and drinks to feel like an adventure, there’s a section of the cocktail menu dedicated to “theatrical” drinks like the Magic Mushroom and Tea Party. Get your phone cameras ready.

Miller is clearly powered by adrenaline at his new hot spot. On the night we visited, the room was still buzzing with beautiful people after midnight even though the kitchen was closed. “This is the stuff right here,” the chef said, marveling at how nobody was in a hurry to go home.

The Guest House is already in expansion mode with a forthcoming location slated to open this summer at the Town Square development in Las Vegas.