{ "version": "1.1", "updated_at": "2026-09-19", "note": "Network master taxonomy for the BellyUp! city network. Headlines use a {city} placeholder so this file is portable to every city property without a fork. A category is published as a page only when at least one real venue resolves to it; zero-venue categories are reported as discovery gaps in the city discovery report rather than shipped as empty pages.", "families": [ { "slug": "story", "name": "The Story", "blurb": "Who built it, how long it has been here, and the rituals that make it theirs.", "color": "#7f5539", "glow": "#e0a53c" }, { "slug": "room", "name": "The Room", "blurb": "What it is like to sit there. Views, patios, noise, music, the floor.", "color": "#14504a", "glow": "#3fbfae" }, { "slug": "occasion", "name": "The Occasion", "blurb": "Why you picked tonight. First dates, birthdays, the whole family, twelve coworkers.", "color": "#3a0ca3", "glow": "#a78bfa" }, { "slug": "values", "name": "What They Stand For", "blurb": "Sourcing, ownership, access, and how a kitchen treats the people in it.", "color": "#1b4332", "glow": "#52b788" }, { "slug": "menu", "name": "On the Menu", "blurb": "What the kitchen actually serves. The part every other site already covers.", "color": "#7a2222", "glow": "#e0673f" } ], "categories": [ { "slug": "bbq", "name": "BBQ and Smokehouses", "family": "menu", "question": "Which barbecue kitchen sounds good today?", "headline_template": "Austin BBQ Worth Bellyin’ Up For", "blurb": "Real smoke, real pits, and the rooms built around them.", "intro": "Choose a Texas brisket tray, Egyptian-influenced barbecue or a Japanese smokehouse meal. Terry Black’s, KG BBQ and Kemuri give the outing different flavors.", "match": { "venue_types": [ "bbq" ], "cuisine_contains": [ "bbq", "barbecue", "barbeque" ] } }, { "slug": "vegan", "name": "Vegan and Plant-Based", "family": "menu", "question": "Where can I find a plant-based meal?", "headline_template": "Vegan and Plant-Based Meals in Austin", "blurb": "Fully vegan kitchens and the places that treat a vegan order like a real order.", "intro": "Get a sandwich at The BE Hive, a whole-plant meal at Casa de Luz or a tasting dinner at Fabrik. Bouldin Creek adds a vegetarian café with vegan choices.", "match": { "dietary_attributes": [ "100_percent_vegan", "vegan_friendly", "vegan_options" ] } }, { "slug": "craft-cocktails", "name": "Craft Cocktail Programs", "family": "menu", "question": "Who is taking the bar seriously?", "headline_template": "Austin Cocktails With a Meal", "blurb": "Bars where somebody wrote the drink list on purpose.", "intro": "La Condesa brings its tequila and mezcal program to a modern Mexican dinner downtown. Open the current drinks list before choosing your table.", "match": { "venue_types": [ "cocktail_bar", "distillery" ], "cuisine_contains": [ "cocktail" ] } }, { "slug": "brunch", "name": "Brunch", "family": "menu", "question": "Where is brunch worth the wait?", "headline_template": "Brunch in Austin", "blurb": "The late morning rooms people plan a weekend around.", "intro": "Make a weekend meal part of the outing. Compare Mexican cooking at Suerte or Este with Launderette and Ezov, then check the current brunch menu.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "brunch" ], "cuisine_contains": [ "brunch" ] } }, { "slug": "late-night", "name": "Late-Night Food", "family": "menu", "question": "What is still open?", "headline_template": "Late-Night Food in Austin", "blurb": "Kitchens still firing when most of the city has closed.", "intro": "Nickel City pairs its Austin bar with Delray Cafe’s sliders and other Detroit-style food. Check the trailer’s current food service before planning a late meal.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "late_night" ] } }, { "slug": "gluten-free", "name": "Gluten-Free Kitchens", "family": "menu", "question": "Can this kitchen actually handle it?", "headline_template": "Gluten-Free Dining in {city}", "blurb": "Kitchens with a real gluten-free option, not a shrug.", "intro": "For a lot of diners this is not a preference, it is the whole decision. It deserves better structure than a note in a review.", "match": { "dietary_attributes": [ "gluten_free", "gluten_free_options" ], "cuisine_contains": [ "gluten-free", "gluten free" ] } }, { "slug": "seafood-oysters", "name": "Seafood and Oysters", "family": "menu", "question": "Who is getting good product in?", "headline_template": "Austin Seafood With a Mexican Kitchen", "blurb": "Raw bars, fish programs, and the rooms that shuck to order.", "intro": "Este makes seafood part of a Mexican dinner on Manor Road. Read its current menu to see what the kitchen is serving for your visit.", "match": { "cuisine_contains": [ "seafood", "oyster", "fish" ] } }, { "slug": "steakhouse", "name": "Steakhouses", "family": "menu", "question": "Where do I take a steak night seriously?", "headline_template": "Steakhouses in {city}", "blurb": "Chops, dry-age programs, and the rooms built for a long dinner.", "intro": "Steakhouses are an occasion category disguised as a food category. Aging program, cut selection, and the room matter about equally.", "match": { "venue_types": [ "steakhouse" ], "cuisine_contains": [ "steak", "chophouse" ] } }, { "slug": "sushi", "name": "Sushi", "family": "menu", "question": "Who is behind the counter?", "headline_template": "Austin Sushi and Omakase Counters", "blurb": "Counters, omakase seats, and neighborhood rolls.", "intro": "Make the sushi dinner the evening’s main event. Toshokan and Craft Omakase publish tasting-counter experiences that need a reservation.", "match": { "cuisine_contains": [ "sushi", "omakase", "japanese" ] } }, { "slug": "great-views", "name": "Great Views", "family": "room", "question": "What am I looking at while I eat?", "headline_template": "{city} Restaurants With Views Worth Bellyin' Up For", "blurb": "Skyline, sunset, water, or a room with one very good window.", "intro": "A view is one of the most common reasons somebody picks a restaurant and one of the least structured facts about it anywhere online.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "skyline_view", "sunset_view", "great_view" ] } }, { "slug": "waterfront", "name": "Waterfront Dining", "family": "room", "question": "Can I eat next to the water?", "headline_template": "Waterfront Dining in {city}", "blurb": "River, intracoastal, lake, and dockside tables.", "intro": "Waterfront is a category people search by name and then sort by feel. Dock access, which side of the water, and whether the good tables are outside all matter.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "waterfront", "dock_access", "water_view" ] } }, { "slug": "rooftops-patios", "name": "Patios and Outdoor Tables", "family": "room", "question": "Can we sit outside?", "headline_template": "Patios and Outdoor Tables in Austin", "blurb": "Open air, fire pits, rooftop bars, and shaded courtyards.", "intro": "Take the meal outside. Compare a covered patio, a pub’s outdoor screens and tables where leashed dogs are welcome, with each detail kept beside its venue.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "outdoor_seating", "rooftop", "patio" ] } }, { "slug": "live-music", "name": "Live Music", "family": "room", "question": "Where can I hear a real band?", "headline_template": "Austin Live Music Worth Going Out For", "blurb": "Rooms where the music is part of the reason you came.", "intro": "Hear a band at the Saxon Pub, head to a Continental Club show or make the Broken Spoke a country-music night. Check the actual set before building the evening around it.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "live_music" ], "venue_types": [ "music_venue" ] } }, { "slug": "dancing", "name": "Dance Floors", "family": "room", "question": "Where is the floor actually full?", "headline_template": "Country Dancing in Austin", "blurb": "DJs, dance floors, and rooms that turn over after midnight.", "intro": "The Broken Spoke gives you country music, a dancehall and two-step lessons. Read the current lesson and show schedule when you want both in one night.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "dancing", "DJ", "nightclub" ], "venue_types": [ "nightclub" ] } }, { "slug": "quiet-dining", "name": "Quiet Enough to Talk", "family": "room", "question": "Can we actually hear each other?", "headline_template": "{city} Restaurants Quiet Enough to Talk In", "blurb": "Rooms built for conversation instead of volume.", "intro": "Noise is the single most common complaint in restaurant reviews and one of the least searchable attributes online. It matters for a first date, a business dinner, a hearing aid, and a Tuesday.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "quiet_conversation", "intimate" ] } }, { "slug": "dog-friendly", "name": "Dog-Friendly Patios", "family": "room", "question": "Can the dog come?", "headline_template": "Austin Outdoor Tables That Welcome Dogs", "blurb": "Patios that mean it, with water bowls and a place to tie off.", "intro": "Bring the dog to a table where the venue explicitly welcomes one. Nixta and Birdie’s publish leashed-dog rules for their outdoor seats.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "dog_friendly", "pet_friendly" ] } }, { "slug": "tableside", "name": "Tableside Experiences", "family": "room", "question": "What happens at the table?", "headline_template": "Tableside Dining in {city}", "blurb": "Carts, carving, pours, grills, and anything finished in front of you.", "intro": "Tableside service is the kind of thing an influencer films once and nobody can find again. It should be a permanent local category.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "tableside_service", "tableside_grill", "cart_service" ] } }, { "slug": "date-night", "name": "Date Night", "family": "occasion", "question": "Where do I take somebody I want to impress?", "headline_template": "{city} Restaurants Made for Date Night", "blurb": "Rooms that carry a conversation without trying too hard.", "intro": "Date night is a combination of noise level, lighting, table spacing, and whether the check lands at a comfortable number. No single field on any platform captures it.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "date_night", "romantic" ] } }, { "slug": "family-table", "name": "The Whole Family Table", "family": "occasion", "question": "Where can the kids have fun too?", "headline_template": "Austin Meals Where Kids Can Have Fun Too", "blurb": "Rooms that genuinely welcome kids instead of tolerating them.", "intro": "Burgers with a playground, a brewery yard with food trucks or a restaurant with a kids menu can give everyone a good reason to go out. Compare the actual family setup.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "kid_friendly", "high_chairs" ] } }, { "slug": "celebrations", "name": "Celebration Restaurants", "family": "occasion", "question": "Where do we do the birthday?", "headline_template": "Celebration Restaurants in {city}", "blurb": "Rooms that know what to do when the table is celebrating something.", "intro": "Anniversaries, graduations, promotions, and birthdays send people looking for a restaurant that will handle the moment instead of ignoring it.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "celebration", "special_occasion" ] } }, { "slug": "private-dining", "name": "Private Dining and Buyouts", "family": "occasion", "question": "Can we take a room?", "headline_template": "Austin Rooms for Your Next Gathering", "blurb": "Separate rooms, buyouts, and spaces built for a closed door.", "intro": "Bring a group together around a Mexican dinner, a French meal or a brewery event. These venues publish private-dining or event-space information of their own.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "private_dining", "buyout_available", "event_space" ] } }, { "slug": "big-groups", "name": "Big Groups", "family": "occasion", "question": "Will they seat twelve of us?", "headline_template": "{city} Restaurants That Can Take a Big Group", "blurb": "Long tables, high tops, and rooms that do not flinch at a party of twelve.", "intro": "Group size is the constraint that decides most weeknight plans, and it is almost never published anywhere a machine can read it.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "group_friendly", "large_party" ] } }, { "slug": "sustainable-kitchen", "name": "Sustainable Kitchens", "family": "values", "question": "What happens to what they do not serve?", "headline_template": "Sustainable Kitchens in {city}", "blurb": "Whole-animal butchery, composting, low waste, and honest sourcing.", "intro": "Sustainability in a kitchen is a set of specific practices, not a word on a menu. The kitchens actually doing it can usually name three of them.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "sustainable_kitchen", "zero_waste", "composting" ] } }, { "slug": "locally-sourced", "name": "Locally Sourced", "family": "values", "question": "Who are they buying from?", "headline_template": "Austin Kitchens Cooking With Texas Ingredients", "blurb": "Named farms, named boats, named producers.", "intro": "Find a dinner shaped by Texas produce and local farms. La Condesa, Hestia and Emmer & Rye describe how sourcing helps shape their menus.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "locally_sourced", "farm_to_table" ] } }, { "slug": "black-owned", "name": "Black-Owned", "family": "values", "question": "Who owns this?", "headline_template": "Black-Owned Restaurants and Bars in {city}", "blurb": "Ownership stated by the business itself.", "intro": "Ownership is a discovery category people search directly. It belongs here only when the business states it publicly, never when it is assumed.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "black_owned" ] } }, { "slug": "women-owned", "name": "Women-Owned", "family": "values", "question": "Who owns this?", "headline_template": "Women-Owned Austin Restaurants", "blurb": "Ownership stated by the business itself.", "intro": "Bouldin Creek Cafe identifies itself as a locally woman-owned restaurant. Its vegetarian and vegan cooking gives South 1st Street a café meal with its own story.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "women_owned" ] } }, { "slug": "accessible", "name": "Easy to Get Into", "family": "values", "question": "Can everybody at the table get in the door?", "headline_template": "Accessible Restaurants in {city}", "blurb": "Step-free entry, usable restrooms, and parking that is not a project.", "intro": "Accessibility is a yes or no question for the person asking it, and almost nowhere online answers it with any confidence.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "accessible", "step_free_entry", "easy_parking" ] } }, { "slug": "good-place-to-work", "name": "Staff Pay and Benefits", "family": "values", "question": "What does the restaurant publish for its team?", "headline_template": "Austin Restaurants That Publish Staff Commitments", "blurb": "Benefits, tenure, training, and kitchens people stay at.", "intro": "Bouldin Creek Cafe publishes a living-wage commitment alongside its vegetarian and vegan cooking. Read the restaurant’s own statement about the people behind the meal.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "staff_benefits", "known_employer", "training_program" ] } }, { "slug": "chef-driven", "name": "Chef-Driven Kitchens", "family": "story", "question": "Is somebody actually cooking here?", "headline_template": "Austin Tasting Dinners and Chef-Led Kitchens", "blurb": "Menus that change because a specific person changed them.", "intro": "Make dinner the main event at a tasting counter or a kitchen with a menu of its own. Compare the food, booking details and dietary rules before reserving.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "chef_driven", "tasting_menu", "changing_menu" ] } }, { "slug": "historic", "name": "Historic Rooms", "family": "story", "question": "What was this building before?", "headline_template": "Historic Restaurants and Bars in {city}", "blurb": "Old buildings, long runs, and rooms with a previous life.", "intro": "A converted depot, a bungalow, a room that has been serving the same thing since the sixties. History is a reason people choose a table and a category nobody maintains.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "historic_building", "historic" ] } }, { "slug": "neighborhood-institution", "name": "Neighborhood Institutions", "family": "story", "question": "What has been here forever?", "headline_template": "{city} Neighborhood Institutions", "blurb": "The places locals measure the neighborhood by.", "intro": "Every neighborhood has two or three restaurants that function as landmarks. Newcomers cannot find them and search engines rarely surface them.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "institution", "long_running" ] } }, { "slug": "owner-story", "name": "Origin Stories", "family": "story", "question": "Who built this and why?", "headline_template": "Austin Restaurants With a Family Story", "blurb": "Family businesses, second acts, and first restaurants.", "intro": "The Black family’s barbecue, La Santa Barbacha’s sibling-run truck and the Veracruz sisters’ Mueller restaurant each bring a family story to the meal.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "family_owned", "owner_operated", "founder_story" ] } }, { "slug": "service-ritual", "name": "Service Rituals", "family": "story", "question": "What do they do that nobody else does?", "headline_template": "Service Rituals Worth Sitting Through in {city}", "blurb": "The bread that arrives unasked, the pour, the goodbye at the door.", "intro": "Rituals are what people describe when they tell somebody else about a restaurant. They are also completely absent from every structured listing on the internet.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "service_ritual", "signature_service" ] } }, { "slug": "community-involvement", "name": "In the Community", "family": "story", "question": "What does this place do when it is not serving dinner?", "headline_template": "Austin Restaurants That Give Back", "blurb": "Fundraisers, feeding programs, school nights, and standing partnerships.", "intro": "Bouldin Creek Cafe publishes meal donations and community fundraising as part of its work. Its own statement connects the café with people beyond the dining room.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "community_partner", "gives_back" ] } }, { "slug": "michelin", "name": "In the MICHELIN Guide", "family": "story", "question": "Who has the inspectors paying attention?", "headline_template": "Austin Restaurants in the MICHELIN Guide", "blurb": "Stars, Bib Gourmands and Guide listings, each with the year attached.", "intro": "Choose a starred tasting dinner, a Bib Gourmand meal or a recommended restaurant. Every profile keeps the current 2026 designation and its source beside the venue.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "michelin_three_star", "michelin_two_star", "michelin_star", "michelin_green_star", "michelin_bib_gourmand", "michelin_recommended" ] } }, { "slug": "sports-on-tv", "name": "Sports on TV", "family": "occasion", "question": "Where can I watch the game with food and drinks?", "headline_template": "Where to Watch Soccer in Austin", "blurb": "Local pubs and breweries that publish game viewing on their own channels.", "intro": "Join Liverpool supporters at B.D. Riley’s in Mueller. The pub says it opens for every Liverpool match and publishes its TV screens; confirm your fixture before the early start.", "match": { "experience_attributes": [ "sports_tv" ] } } ] }