New Businesses on Aldrich Street in Mueller: What's Ahead

Royal Blue Grocery co-owner Craig Staley says Mueller residents have been asking for one of his stores "for many years." About a decade ago, he recalled, an email campaign "clobbered our inboxes with requests," and he never found out who organized it. That request is now on the calendar. Royal Blue's Mueller store is forecast to open in January 2027 at 2010 Aldrich St. It's the latest sign of a shift on Aldrich Street that started a few doors down, in one storefront that went through three plans in less than two years.

The new tenants on Aldrich are places you can stop into on any weekday for coffee, a loaf of bread or a carton of eggs. The street is turning into Mueller's corner pantry, and the clearest evidence is at 1905 Aldrich St., Suite 110.

One suite, three plans

The history of that address shows the shift better than any announcement:

1. 2017 to August 2024. Halcyon ran its Mueller café and bar here. It was known for coffee, espresso martinis, s'mores and service that ran from day into night. Its last day was Wednesday, August 14, 2024, and the downtown Halcyon is still open.
2. September 2024. Eater Austin reported that Little Ola's Biscuits, from Olamaie's MaieB Hospitality group, would take "the newly vacated Halcyon spot" in early 2025. The plan included biscuit sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, espresso and a liquor license for brunch drinks and a full bar.
3. February 2025. Austin Business Journal reported that MaieB had shut down the biscuit shop concept, months after announcing plans to grow it into a chain. We found no report that a Mueller location ever opened.
4. March 17, 2026. ThoroughFare soft-opened in Suite 110.

The two earlier plans were built around a café and a bar. The tenant that actually moved in is part café and part grocery store.

What ThoroughFare actually is

ThoroughFare comes from the team behind ThoroughBread. CEO Ryan Goebel and co-founder Nick Vukmaravich opened it as a market selling bakery, café, deli and grocery items, all made by the brand. The company's location page lists four parts: Drink Bar, Bakery, Kitchen and Market.

The market is a real grocery section. Its online catalog is organized into pantry, dairy and eggs, refrigerated, frozen, grab-and-go, and kitchen and household goods. Austin Food Magazine reported that the shelves carry the same house-made condiments, dressings, jams, butters and nut butters the kitchen uses in its dishes. The number of house-made products has grown. Coverage around opening put it at about 170, and the company now advertises more than 200.

The hours fit a market. ThoroughFare posts 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends, with breakfast until 11 a.m. The kitchen menu covers sourdough, pastries, breakfast burridoughs and toasts, sandwiches, salads and soups. Pick up a coffee on the way to work, or forgotten groceries on the walk home. The suite now does both.

Austin Business Journal reported in June that ThoroughFare is raising money to expand across Texas. If that happens, the Aldrich Street store would be the model the company copies elsewhere.

Merit filled in the morning across the street

A month before ThoroughFare opened, Merit Coffee opened its fourth Austin coffee shop at 1900 Aldrich St. on February 14, 2026. It opens early, from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekends. It serves espresso, cold brew, matcha, tea and pastries, with indoor and outdoor seating.

Both shops open before most of the street, which leaves the early hours of Aldrich Street to the two of them. Hopdoddy Burger Bar, the bottle shop WhichCraft, and the cinema handle the evenings. The theater got a new name this summer. Alamo Drafthouse renamed its Mueller location the Matthew McConaughey Cinema on August 10.

The next piece, a few blocks up

Royal Blue Grocery's Mueller store will take up 2,158 square feet. It's being designed by Chioco Design and built by Havens Construction, the same team behind every Royal Blue in Austin. Staley says the store will be "tailored to the Mueller neighborhood." Across its stores, Royal Blue sells grab-and-go food, coffee, groceries, household goods, beer and wine. Its prepared foods include hot sandwiches and more than 15 kinds of fresh morning tacos.

Staley said it was hard to settle on a spot in Mueller until AMLI started its fifth residential project here. He has worked with AMLI for two decades, and AMLI was the original landlord of his store at Third and Lavaca. Royal Blue is opening the Mueller store while it closes one of its downtown stores on Sixth Street.

January 2027 is a forecast. It's the most recent date Community Impact reported, in April, and an earlier article that month had said August 2026. We haven't found a later update on construction.

Here's what's on the street now and what's coming, by address:

Athletic Outcomes, a fitness studio that has operated on East Riverside since 2015, offers coached group classes and small-group training capped at six people. Community Impact's July story gave an October 1 opening date, and the gym's own timing has since moved to mid-October.

The open question is Park Central's ground floor

AMLI says Park Central is its largest Mueller community so far, with about 650 homes. The East Building's 230 apartments are scheduled for April 2027 and the West Building's 420 for October 2027, with the rest of the property finishing in 2028. A November 2025 City presentation counted 648 homes, 98 of them affordable. The West Building also includes 11 live/work spaces facing the neighborhood.

Royal Blue is the only announced tenant for Park Central's 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. The space is split into two 5,000-square-foot suites. Each can be divided into as many as three shops and is designed to fit restaurants with patios. So the pantry trend has a limit. The remaining storefronts on this block are designed for dinner and patios, and nobody has announced who will fill them.

On and around Aldrich this month

The calendar ties back to the same few blocks:

• Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Texas Farmers' Market at Mueller runs year-round at 2006 Philomena St.
• October 5 and 6. Thinkery is closed for building maintenance. Its outdoor exhibit, The Climber in Our Backyard, is closed through October 12.
• Friday, October 23, and Friday, November 6. KUTX Rock the Park puts on free shows at the Girard Kinney Park amphitheater, with sets at 6:30 and 7:15 p.m.
• Saturday, October 24, 8 a.m. to noon. The Mueller Neighborhood Association holds its fall community yard sale.
• Sunday, October 25. Thinkery's Spooky Day offers hands-on STEAM activities, and costumes are welcome.

Event organizers in Mueller note that details can change, so check before you go. For more on the parks, shops and routines nearby, see our guide to everyday life in Mueller and our Northeast Central neighborhood page.

When a storefront on your block changes hands, it can change what your home is worth. Ellevé Property Group follows Aldrich Street one storefront at a time, and our weekly newsletter will report who signs for Park Central's remaining suites as soon as it's public. Start Your Elevated Experience.