A casual tradition: New restaurant opens at Lansing Corners
Published 8:49 am Friday, January 3, 2014
Tommy Tauchnitz stands at the bar of the reopened Lansing Corners under the new name The Corners Bar & Grill. — Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
Tommy Tauchnitz is ready to unveil a surprise.
The inside of the The Corners Bar & Grill ready for customers.
His new business, The Corners Bar & Grill, is the latest restaurant to open in the area, and the first restaurant inside Lansing Corners since 2008.
Tauchnitz announced plans to open The Corners last summer. He said the restaurant opened to friends and family on Dec. 18, with a soft opening a few days later. Now that word is spreading about The Corners, Tauchnitz is planning to let more people know about it over the next few weeks.
“We’re carrying on the tradition,” he said Thursday.
Tauchnitz got the idea over the past few years as he drove by Lansing Corners. He was friends with the son of a longtime cook at the former Lansing Corners restaurant and remembers how good the food was.
“It was just a shame that the place wasn’t open,” he said.
Lansing Corners is now open for business as The Corners Bar & Grill.
It wasn’t until he spoke with Dave Olson, a friend and Lansing Corners owner, that Tauchnitz decided to follow through and open another Lansing Corners restaurant.
Yet opening a restaurant wasn’t simple. Tauchnitz, Bruce Hovland and others made massive renovations to the space from June to December 2013. That included redoing the walls, building a bar from scratch, putting in a fireplace and more.
“We basically stripped everything down to the old studs and started all over,” Tauchnitz said.
The Corners has about 20 employees and serves a variety of grill items getting rave reviews, according to staff, from burgers and wraps to onion ring appetizers and a chicken wild rice dish.
“A lot of this food is from scratch,” said Joe Morse, head chef. “We cut our own steaks.”
The Corners also has a full bar for patrons. The restaurant and bar is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 4 p.m. to close during the week and 11 a.m. to close Saturday and Sunday.
Tauchnitz is glad people are flocking to The Corners already — staff recently served more than 150 people on a Friday night. He hopes people will enjoy a new restaurant at Lansing Corners, which has existed in some form since 1937.
“It’s basically giving people a casual atmosphere with great food and lots of fun,” he said.
