AUSTIN, Texas — Austin bakers are coming together to raise some "dough" for a historic, beloved restaurant that was destroyed by a fire last month.
Texas French Bread, located on Rio Grande Street, burned down in late January. Fire officials said mechanical failures accidentally started the blaze, which caused more than $1 million in damages. No one was harmed, but the building was a total loss.
Now, one local nonprofit and another Austin restaurant and bakery are raising money to help Texas French Bread.
Easy Tiger and the Austin chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier are teaming up to host "The Baker's Benefit" on Sunday, Feb. 6, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event will be held at Easy Tiger South, located at 3508 South Lamar Blvd.
A GoFundMe has also been created to help Texas French Bread. As of Feb. 4, it has already surpassed its $100,000 goal.
Texas French Bread is celebrating 40 years of business this year. Before the building was a bakery, it was the famous Rome Inn, a music venue in the 1970s where artists like Stevie Ray Vaughan played. The building originally opened as a neighborhood grocery store in 1939.
With regard to rebuilding, Texas French Bread states on its website that staff currently doesn't "know enough to offer any cogent thoughts about the future."
"To all of you who have been part of our community over the years, we send you our love and we grieve with you. We are incredibly grateful for all of the support, kind words and sentiments that so many of you have offered in this difficult moment," Texas French Bread said. "Thank you for your patronage, community spirit, and all the memories you’ve made with us during the past forty years that make this moment so sad."
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