Local news and fun, every day 6am.
Featured
austonia newsletter
Most viewed
17 sweet spots around town to get your Valentine's Day fix

(Tiny Pies/Instagram)
With Valentine's Day around the corner, it's the sweetest time of the year in Austin. Whether you're looking for a chocolate gift set to give your friends or a special gift for your significant other, Austin sweet specialists have you covered for an ultimate sweet treat on Cupid's day.
Here are 17 shops around town offering sweet Valentine's Day specials.
Berdoll Pecan Candy & Gift Co., 2626 State Hwy. 71 W.
Gift your significant other a pecan-filled Valentine's Day gift set from Berdoll Pecan Candy & Co. With four gift set assortments and different flavored pecans, the pecan specialists in town will help you find the perfect sweet treat for any pecan-lover.
You can find the different Valentine's Day gift sets from Berdoll Pecan Candy & Gift Co here.
Dolce Neve, multiple locations
The beloved gelato shop in Austin is providing a Valentine's Day special unlike any other in town. Dolce Neve is offering a heart shaped gelato cake you never knew you needed until now. Filled with pistachio gelato, strawberry crumble, pistachio powder and white chocolate, you can purchase this cake for $30.
You can find more information on Dolce Neve's menu here.
Zucchini Kill Bakery, 701 E. 53rd St.
Completely vegan and gluten free, Zucchini Kill Bakery has Valentine's Day specials unlike any other place in town. The bakery is offering an assortment of different cupcakes, cream and waffle pies and brownies for Valentine's Day, plus a cookie and brownie box mix so you and your loved one can make a fresh batch from the comfort of your home.
You can find more information on sweets at Zucchini Kill Bakery here.
Edis Chocolates, 3808 Spicewood Springs Road Suite 102
Edis Chocolates has everything and anything to set the spirit for Valentine's Day this year. The sweet shop and bakery is offering different box assortments including an assortment of truffles, chocolate covered strawberries, all types of chocolate and so much more.
You can find the different Valentine's Day gift sets from Edis Chocolates here.
Tiny Pies, multiple locations
Trade in the usual chocolate set box for Tiny Pies this Valentine's Day. Tiny Pies is offering a Valentine's Day menu filled with different assortments of sweets. With cherry pie, chocolate tart, creme brulee and so much more on Cupid's day, the differently curated love boxes make for the perfect gift this Valentine's Day.
You can find the Valentine's Day gift sets from Tiny Pies here.
Lammes Candies, multiple locations
Lammes Candies has been providing Austinites with sweet treats since 1885 and this Valentine's Day is no different. The shop is offering various assortments of flavored chocolates, truffles, chocolate covered strawberries and praline gift sets for you and your special person.
You can find the Valentine's Day gift sets from Lammes Candies here.
Sugar Mama's Bakeshop, 1905 S. 1st St.
Sugar Mama's Bakeshop has been keeping Austin sweet since 2008 and they don't plan on disappointing this year. The shop is offering different flavored cupcakes, cookies, macarons, hot cocoa bombs and chocolate dipped strawberries for Valentine's Day, plus much more on their regular menu to help your sweet cravings this Valentine's Day.
You can find the Valentine's Day specials from Sugar Mama's Bakeshop here.
Maggie Louise Confections, 1017 E. 6th St.
Maggie Louise Confections is offering specialty sweets unlike any other shop in Austin. With an assortment of beautifully decorated and hand painted chocolate gift sets, you can find the perfect sweet treat for your Valentine's or Galentine's day celebrations.
You can find the Valentine's Day gift sets from Maggie Louise Confections here.
Michelle's Patisserie, 12233 RR 620 N. Suite 114
Michelle's Patisserie is not messing around this Valentine's Day. The shop is offering Valentine's cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries, a Valentine's cookie decorating kit, plus a Valentine's "Afternoon Tea at Home Box" featuring four tea sandwiches, salmon canape, a mini quiche, scone, fresh fruit and five desserts for $35.
You can find the different Valentine's Day gift sets from Michelle's Patisserie here.
See's Candies, 10710 Research Blvd.
See's Candies chocolate shop has so many different types of chocolate assortments you'll struggle picking just one for Valentine's Day. From dark, white and milk chocolate plus some special flavors including caramel, almond, coconut and so much more, this is the place to hit for a different assortment of Valentine's Day gift sets.
You can find the Valentine's Day gift sets from See's Candies here.
SRSLY Chocolate, 117 E. Third St., Taylor, Texas
This Texas-made chocolate shop offers deliciously addicting chocolates with fresh ingredients. Besides the typical chocolate bars and brownies, SRSLY Chocolate is offering a limited edition love bar featuring dark chocolate, rose petals and cranberry for your Valentine.
You can find the different chocolates offered at Srsly Chocolate here.
Hayley Cakes & Cookies, multiple locations
This Austin bakery has all the sweets you and yours desire for Valentine's Day. From an assortment of cookies, brownies cupcakes, and more, Hayley Cakes & Cookies has your sweet treat for the upcoming special day.
You can find the different assortment of sweets offered at Hayley Cakes & Cookies here.
Antonelli's Cheese Shop, 4220 Duval St.
If you prefer savory over sweet on Valentine's Day, Antonelli's Cheese Shop has you covered. The shop is offering two different assortments featuring different cheeses, meats, chocolates and fruits for the perfect Valentine's Day gift. With their 10 year anniversary on Feb. 11, the shop is celebrating big this year by offering giveaways everyday until Valentine's Day.
You can find more information on the Valentine's Day gift sets from Antonelli's Cheese Shop here.
La Pâtisserie, multiple locations
Treat yourself and your significant other with sweets from this traditional French pastry shop in Austin. La Patisserie is offering special Valentine's Day decorated macarons, cookies, eclairs, tarts and so much more to share the love and sweetness on Sunday.
You can find out more on what La Patisserie has to offer here.
Foliepop's, 1340 Galleria Circle Suite A-140
If you're looking to send your significant other a kiss on Valentine's Day, look no further. Foliepop's is offering signature decorated French kiss cakes with vanilla mousse and strawberry jelly, plus different assortments of chocolate tartelettes you can give your special someone.
You can find the different Valentine's Day specials from Folliepop's here.
Crema Bakery & Cafe, 9001 Brodie Lane
Crema Bakery has all the sweetness you, your significant other and friends need this Valentine's Day. The shop is offering chocolate covered strawberries, hot cocoa bombs, cakes, DIY sugar cookie kits, cheesecake, a locally-grown succulent with a cactus-theme cookie and so many more sweet options.
You can find the different Valentine's Day specials from Crema Bakery here.
Austin Food and Wine Alliance Citywide Sugar High Bake Sale
Not sure which shop to pick for your Valentine's Day sweets? The Austin Food and Wine Alliance is bringing back the Citywide Sugar High online bake sale for Valentine's Day, and with over 20 participating shops, the online shop includes every sweet imaginable. Featuring cookies, pies, cakes, macarons and so much more, Austin bakers and pastry chefs have you covered for the perfect Valentine's Day sweet. Orders are available for pickup at Last Straw at 1914 E. 6th St. from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Feb 14. Delivery is also available.
You can find more information on the Austin Food and Wine Alliance Citywide Sugar High online bake sale here.
- 8 comfort food recipes from around the world - austonia ›
- Comfort food recipes to try as the weather cools in Austin - austonia ›
- Austin food under $10, cheap eats that are delicious - austonia ›
- Where to order Takeout comfort food in Austin - austonia ›
- Arctic blast set to chill Valentine's Day weekend - austonia ›
- 11 Austin restaurants to buy to-go Valentine's Day meals - austonia ›
- Austin love stories that will warm your heart - austonia ›
Popular
(Pexels)
If you are a committed, grunge-wearing resident of the Pacific Northwest, it is easy–almost automatic–to look at Texas as an extraordinarily dry, hot and culturally oppressive place that is better to avoid, especially in the summer. Our two granddaughters live with their parents in Portland.
Recently we decided to take the older girl, who is 15, to Dallas. Setting aside the summer heat, a Portlander can adjust to the vibes of Austin without effort. So let’s take Texas with all of its excesses straight up. Dallas, here we come.
Our 15-year-old granddaughter and her sister, 12, have spent summer weeks with us, usually separately so that we could better get to know each individually. In visits focused on Austin and Port Aransas, the girls seemed to be developing an affection for Texas.
Houston and Dallas are two great American cities, the 4th and 9th largest, each loaded with cultural treasures, each standing in glittering and starchy contrast to Austin’s more louche, T-shirts and shorts ways.
Three hours up I-35, Dallas loomed before us as a set of gray skyscrapers in a filmy haze, accessed only through a concrete mixmaster of freeways, ramps and exits. I drove with false confidence. Be calm, I said to myself, it will all end in 10 minutes under the hotel entrance canopy. And it did.
The pool at the Crescent Court Hotel in Dallas. (Crescent Court Hotel)
We stayed three nights at the Crescent Court Hotel ($622 a night for two queens), a high-end hotel in Uptown, patronized by women in white blazers, business people in suits, and tall, lean professional athletes, their shiny Escalades and Corvettes darting in and out, and other celebrities like Bill Barr, the former attorney general who shoe-horned his ample self into a Toyota.
Each morning as I walked to Whole Foods for a cappuccino, a fellow identified by a bellman as Billy the Oilman arrived in his Rolls Royce Phantom. Where does he park? “Wherever he wants to. He likes the Starbucks here.”
We garaged our more modest set of wheels for the visit. We were chauffeured for tips by Matt Cooney and Alfonza “The Rev” Scott in the hotel’s black Audi sedan. They drove us to museums, restaurants and past the enclaves of the rich and famous. In Highland Park, The Rev pointed out the homes of the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones and Troy Aikman along with the family compound of the Hunts, oil and gas tycoons.
The Dallas Museum of Art’s “Cartier and Islam” exhibit (until Sept. 18) attracted an older crowd; the nearby Perot Museum of Nature and Science was a powerful whirlpool of kids’ groups ricocheting from the Tyrannosaurus Rex to the oil fracking exhibit. Watch your shins.
A Geogia O'Keeffe oil painting called "Ranchos Church, New Mexico" at the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art. (Rich Oppel)
For us, the best museum was the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, a 50-minute, madcap drive away via a 75 mph toll lane along I-30. Don’t try it during rush hour. The Carter has an exquisite collection of Remington paintings and sculptures and an excellent array of 19th and 20th-century paintings as well. Pick one museum? The Amon Carter. Peaceful, beautiful, uncrowded, free admission and small enough to manage in two hours.
The Fort Worth Stockyards, a place of history (with a dab of schmaltz), fun and good shopping, filled one of our mornings. The 98 acres brand the city as Cowboy Town, with a rodeo and a twice-daily (11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.) cattle drive. We shopped for boots, drank coffee and watched the “herd” of 18 longhorns. So languid was their progress that if this were a real market drive the beef would have been very tough and leathery before it hit the steakhouse dinner plate.
The cattle drive at the Fort Worth Stockyards. (Rich Oppel)
But we could identify: the temperature was 97. “I saw a dog chasing a cat today,” said the emcee, deploying a very old joke. “It was so hot that both were walking.”
With limited time, we chose three very different restaurants:
- Nobu, in the Crescent Court Hotel; Jia, a modern Chinese restaurant in Highland Park; and Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth. Nobu’s exotic Japanese menu set us back $480, with tip, for four (we had a guest), but it was worth it.
- Jia was an ordinary suburban strip mall restaurant, but with good food and a reasonable tab of $110 for four.
- Joe T.’s is an 85-year-old Fort Worth institution (think Matt’s El Rancho but larger), a fine Mexican restaurant where a meal with two drinks was $115.
Sushi at high-end restaurant Nobu. (Crescent Hotel)
It was all a splurge for a grandchild’s visit. Now we will get back to our ordinary road trips of Hampton Inns, where a room rate is closer to the Crescent Court’s overnight parking rate of $52. And to corner cafes in small towns.
Did Dallas change our 15-year-old’s view of Texas? “Yes. I think it’s a lot cooler than I did. The fashion, the food.” So, not only Austin is cool. Take Texas as a whole. It’s a big, complex, diverse and wonderful state.
(Tesla)
Giga Texas, the massive Tesla factory in southeast Travis County is getting even bigger.
The company filed with the city of Austin this week to expand its headquarters with a new 500,000-square-foot building. The permit application notes “GA 2 and 3 expansion,” which indicates the company will make two general assembly lines in the building.
More details about the plans for the building are unclear. The gigafactory has been focused on Model Y production since it opened in April, but the company is also aiming for Cybertruck production to kick off in mid-2023.
While there is room for expansion on the 3.3 square miles of land Tesla has, this move comes after CEO Elon Musk’s recent comments about the state of the economy and its impact on Tesla.
In a May interview with Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, Musk said the gigafactories in Berlin and Austin are “gigantic money furnaces” and said Giga Texas had manufactured only a small number of cars.
And in June, Musk sent a company wide email saying Tesla will be reducing salaried headcount by 10%, then later tweeted salaried headcount should be fairly flat.
- Grand opening of Giga Texas faces push back from the community ... ›
- Giga Texas may start production of Model Y's this week - austonia ›
- Tesla hosts Cyber Rodeo grand opening party for Giga Texas ... ›
- Musk: Recently opened Giga Texas is a gigantic money furnace ... ›
- Elon Musk is spotted driving a Cybertruck through Giga Texas ... ›
- PHOTOS: Peek inside the Tesla Gigafactory producing Model Ys in ... ›
- Cyber Rodeo: what we know about the Giga Texas opening party ... ›
- Excitement over Giga Texas grand opening continues at Tesla Con ›
- Tesla's mileage range on new Model Y lowers - austonia ›