Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ in Buda temporarily closes, says shifting to new management
With one of Texas barbecue’s busiest seasons approaching, one of Central Texas’s most popular barbecue restaurants has temporarily closed.
Modesty and Miguel Vidal announced on Instagram Thursday that they have shuttered their restaurant in Buda until May 8.
The couple said that they had been unable to meet their standards in terms of service and food after moving from a 600-square-foot trailer on Menchaca Road to a 6,000 square-foot restaurant in Buda last summer. This reporter visited a couple of months back and can confirm that the attention to detail in both service and flavors and food preparation did not meet the lofty standards that had the American-Statesman regularly rank it among Austin’s best barbecue for the last decade.
The owners “admit and acknowledge” in the post “many issues and challenges” they’ve dealt with since scaling their business.
The owners did not immediately respond to messages from the American-Statesman about the specific nature of the issues or who the new management is that would be replacing the unidentified previous management.
Valentina’s came under intense scrutiny last year when an anonymous person on Reddit accused the business of stealing worker’s tips and posted a photo of an alleged Valentina’s policy paper regarding work and tip policy. Several of the anonymous commenters on the post, which received more than 500 comments, described a mismanaged operation with bad working conditions.
When the Vidals opened the Buda restaurant, they said they had hired a group of high school students who are friends with the couple's son.
The Vidals moved to Buda from South Austin in 2020 and Modesty Vidal said when they opened the new restaurant that they were excited to be part of the growing community in the small town that "has been behind us 1,000%." They permanently closed the trailer to focus completely on the new restaurant.
"This is something we dreamed about and we knew we weren’t going to stop until it happened," Modesty Vidal said last June. "If you want something bad enough, you’ll get it if you continue to try. If you don’t get it, you probably didn’t want it that bad. That’s maybe how I’ve always been: stubborn to a fault.”
This is a developing story.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ in Buda temporarily closes
