If you've ever grabbed a grilled cheese at the old-school soda fountain counter at Nau's Enfield Drug, you already know this place is one of those rare Austin spots that somehow survived the city's relentless development wave — until now.
Plans are moving forward to redevelop the beloved Old West Austin property that's been home to Nau's for decades. The Austin Business Journal got an early peek at what developers have in mind for the site, and let's just say change is coming to one of the city's most nostalgic corners.
Nau's has been a fixture on Enfield Road since 1951, the kind of place your grandparents went, then your parents, then you — ordering the same egg salad sandwich and a cherry Coke like time had stood still. It's the sort of neighborhood anchor that people in other cities only read about in history books.
Details on exactly what the new development will look like are still coming into focus, but the fact that there's a formal redevelopment plan in play is enough to get longtime Austinites in their feelings. Whether the iconic pharmacy and lunch counter survives in some form inside a new project remains the big question everyone's asking.
Old West Austin residents have watched their neighborhood change dramatically over the past decade, with property values and new construction pushing out the character that made it worth moving to in the first place. Nau's has been one of the last holdouts, and news of a redevelopment plan is hitting the community hard.
Stay tuned — we'll keep an eye on how this one unfolds and what it means for one of Austin's most storied little storefronts.