The Room
Trace opened with the W Austin in 2010 — the hotel's downtown anchor restaurant, a high-ceilinged contemporary dining room with floor-to-ceiling glass facing the Second Street District. The room runs at the W Hotel design standard and has held the format through fifteen years of operation.
The address makes it the de-facto Second-Street-District working-dinner room — a short walk from the convention centre, the SXSW host hotels, and the deal-week Lavaca Street offices. The room handles the working crowd through the week and a more-leisurely brunch service on the weekends.
The Food
Modern American with a Texas-Hill-Country bench. The 44 Farms wagyu burger is the lunch anchor. The wood-grilled bavette, the seasonal Gulf snapper, and the rotating vegetable plates run as the dinner menu's spine. The three-course Hill Country prix-fixe at $65 per person is the order for a first visit.
Wine programme is American with a small French bench, weighted toward California Cabernet and Texas Hill Country whites. Cocktails run the W Hotel house-book — a serious classic-cocktail programme alongside a rotating tiki-revival bench. Service is the W standard, practiced without being stiff.
Best Occasion Fit
Close a Deal: Trace is the working-downtown hotel restaurant for the deal that needs the address but does not require Four Seasons-grade formality. The booth tables are quiet, the kitchen runs at a respectable register, and the address is convenient to most downtown hotels.
First Date: The bar at Trace is a downtown casual first-date alternative. The cocktail programme is the natural opener, the menu shares well, and the room's W Hotel register reads as polished without becoming theatrical.
Birthday: Birthdays at Trace are warm, modern-American, hotel-restaurant affairs the room handles with the practiced ease of a fifteen-year-old W operation.