Austin’s Storied Driskill Grill Returns, Now With April Bloomfield at the Helm

MML Hospitality will debut its revamp of Austin’s historic Driskill Grill and Bar today (Monday, May 18), with a deep focus on Texas beef alongside an all-over-the-map cooking sensibility from chef April Bloomfield.

“It always comes back to what’s in Austin, what’s the market,” MML co-founder Larry McGuire tells Observer. “It seems like the capital of Texas should have an independent, grand, badass steakhouse. It’s never really had that. We’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”

“Procuring Texas beef was a No. 1 priority,” Bloomfield tells Observer. 

So at a restaurant space that dates back to 1930, inside a hotel that debuted in 1886, the Driskill Grill is serving Dean & Peeler beef that’s raised, finished and dry-aged in Texas while Bloomfield nods at everything from legendary New York steakhouses to her British cooking roots to a recent trip to Egypt.

“It’s really just about taking a chef-driven approach to it, where you’re just modernizing how we think about menus and seasonality and produce and applying that to the steakhouse model,” McGuire says. “I think April’s the perfect person to do that because she’s known for her meat cooking, but she’s also amazing at vegetables and unexpected flavors.”

For Bloomfield’s version of steakhouse bacon, she’s dry-rubbing the bacon with dried Mexican chiles, sugar and salt, before smoking it and then heavily searing it.

“You get a little kiss of char, a little sweet caramelization,” Bloomfield tells Observer. And then, to complement the sweet, smoky, salty bacon, “We made a pickle of charred green tomatoes with lots of pickled onions,” Bloomfield adds.

Like New York’s Keens, a steakhouse that McGuire loves, the Driskill Grill is serving its steaks with a roasted red pepper. Prime rib, meanwhile, is carved tableside and comes with Yorkshire pudding.

“You go to a steakhouse because you want it to feel grand,” Bloomfield, who joined MML Hospitality as executive chef in 2025 to put her stamp on multiple restaurants, says. “There’s nothing more grand than somebody coming around and slicing a 14-ounce piece of perfectly cooked prime rib.”

Bloomfield and Driskill Grill and Bar executive chef Nick Erven have collaborated on a menu where the side dishes are as chef-driven as the main courses.

“Being from England, I love potatoes,” Bloomfield says. “And we’ve got three kinds of potatoes.”

There are house-made fries, twice-baked potatoes with a cacio e pepe crumble and mashed potatoes that are baked and mixed with hot milk, cream and butter, then topped with chive butter.

Beyond potatoes, side dishes include braised peas with mint poblano pesto. A stewed okra dish with tomatoes sounds like a Southern classic, but it was inspired by a trip Bloomfield took to Egypt, where she was “blown away with the okra they do there.” The okra-and-tomato dish at the Driskill Grill is stewed with slow-cooked onions, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, coriander and chiles.

“It’s tangy and spicy,” Bloomfield says. “It’s nice to have things that are a bit more punchy next to the beef.”

The Driskill Grill’s creamed spinach is made with lots of Taleggio cream, along with Parmesan, basil, braised lemon zest, garlic, thyme and black peppercorns, and is finished with lemon juice for extra brightness.  

“We’ve definitely made a menu that’s familiar but a bit refreshed,” Bloomfield says.

Guests who visit the Driskill Bar can order off the entire steakhouse menu, and Bloomfield is working on a burger and some snacks specifically for the bar. 

“There’s nothing better than sitting at a beautiful bar, having a cocktail and eating a big fat steak or a nice burger,” Bloomfield says. “I think that’s just a lovely thing to do.”

Along with the 24-ounce strips and 16-ounce Akaushi wagyu rib-eyes on the menu, there’s grandeur all-around at the Driskill Grill, which boasts old photos, Texas art, taxidermy and a history of A-list guests.

“The lore is that LBJ and Lady Bird had their first date at the Grill,” McGuire says. “There’s all this amazing photography and all these events that have happened in the space. I’ve wanted to do a steakhouse interior for a long time. We totally tricked out the interior with leather and fine materials and big, comfortable booths. It’s kind of like a fever dream of what we would want a steakhouse to be. We have a bar room with a big new bar, and we kept a lot of elements that were there, like cheesy cut glass from the last renovation and wood paneling that’s kind of over-the-top. We were able to really create some layering.”

McGuire remembers the Driskill Grill from his youth, when it was a traditional fine dining destination. He’s excited about reimagining the space for the next generation, at the first restaurant where he has an in-house dry-aging program, while continuing to be inspired by the past.

“I’ve always spent time in New York and eaten at Peter Luger and Keens, and it’s like, ‘Why isn’t there this 100-year-old steakhouse in Austin?’” McGuire says. “So now we’re getting to do it.”

The Driskill Grill & Bar is located at 117 E. 7th St., Austin, Texas 78701. The Driskill Grill will be open for dinner seven days a week from 4:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and for lunch Thursday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Driskill Bar will be open Sunday-Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Thursday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m.