A Nashville hot spot with live music, dining and nightlife is expanding to Austin — a city known as the Live Music Capital of the World — with a partnership between an industry veteran and star musician Justin Timberlake.
Author & Edit Hospitality, a company from restaurant-and-hospitality executive Sam Fox, is partnering with Timberlake to transform a more than century-old former U.S. Post Office building in downtown Austin into a Twelve Thirty Club. The historic three-story stone building at 210 W. 6th St. is expected to become an upscale live music venue and cocktail lounge by late 2027.
Author & Edit Hospitality opened the Nashville Twelve Thirty Club at Fifth + Broadway in 2021. But long before that, Fox said in the statement he would walk past the Austin building and began "imagining what it could become." His team embarked on a six-year journey, "waiting for the right moment and the right kind of energy" to move forward with the Twelve Thirty Club in Austin.
"We want to honor its history while creating something completely original for Austin," Fox added in the statement.
Fox, a 12-time James Beard Award nominee, founded and built-up Fox Restaurant Concepts, launching over 170 eateries. In addition to Twelve Thirty Club, Author & Edit's portfolio includes The Global Ambassador hotel in Phoenix and the company is planning to open a signature hotel at Sagefield, a mixed-use project that mall landlord Simon Property Group is developing in Nashville.
Austin venue
Austin "truly gets live music," Timberlake said in the statement, and getting to "restore the soul of such an iconic building while working with Sam again is incredible.
"We’re being intentional with how the space carries sound across every level, because how music lives in the room is just as important as the design," Timberlake added. "We’re creating a space that people will want to experience again and again."
The proposed $30 million renovation is expected to get underway early next year, officials said, taking the property built between 1912 and 1914 and originally designed by James Knox Taylor into the future. The building also formerly served as a federal court and is a neoclassical landmark in Austin. The building was given to the University of Texas in the 1960s, according to a statement from Author & Edit Hospitality.
The Austin venue is designed to be triple the size of the Nashville club and span nearly 35,000 square feet of space. Like the Nashville venue, New York-based studio AvroKO will oversee the design of the Austin location.
In Austin, the Twelve Thirty Club is expected to build on the club's Nashville legacy by channeling the city's music and culinary culture through a lens of "elegance, creativity and immersive design," officials said in the statement. The food and beverage program will take cues from Nashville's offerings while introducing new dishes and cocktails inspired by Austin.
The Austin venue is expected to have an all-day dining and entertainment area known as The Supper Club on its main level. Down a hidden staircase, a speakeasy offers visitors a late-night retreat with dim lighting and handcrafted cocktails.
The venue's upper floors are earmarked for exclusive experiences. The second level is expected to host the brand's private members club for the so-called honorary member. Those members have access to a private lounge with the ability to host guests and are given VIP priority reservations through the club. Membership also includes invites to members-only chef dinners, wine events and other gatherings on an exclusive terrace overlooking the Supper Club and a special viewing area for shows.