Marc Katz grew up working in his father's restaurant in Manhattan. He moved to Texas, and in 1979 he opened Katz's Deli & Bar on West 6th. It was a real New York deli dropped into a city that did not have one. Pastrami piled high on rye. Matzo ball soup. Cheesecake milkshakes. Fried pickles.

By 1985 the kitchen was running around the clock, seven days a week. That is where the slogan came from. Katz's Never Kloses, spelled with a K, painted where everybody walking down 6th could see it.

The timing mattered. West 6th was becoming Austin's bar district, and Katz's was the only place serving real food at 3 a.m. Musicians came in after gigs. Bartenders came in after shifts. UT students came in after last call. If you lived in Austin in the 80s, 90s, or 2000s, you ended a night at Katz's at least once.

Marc Katz himself was as much of a landmark as the deli. His yellow Cadillac was parked out front constantly. He ran loud, unmissable late-night ad campaigns. In 2010 he filed to run for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary and opened his campaign by naming deli sandwiches after his opponents, describing incumbent David Dewhurst as baloney on white bread. He lost the primary to Linda Chavez-Thompson.

Katz's closed in January 2011 after a 32-year run.

The reasons were not mysterious. Parking on that stretch of West 6th had gotten brutal as downtown filled in around the restaurant. There were financial problems and a bankruptcy filing. Marc Katz was ready to be done with the restaurant business.

The building later became part of real estate developer Nate Paul's World Class portfolio. The top floor spent about a decade as Momo's, one of the best singer-songwriter rooms Austin ever had. Then that closed too.

For 16 years, the corner of 6th and Rio Grande sat as a reminder of something Austin used to have.

Here is the part most Austinites do not know. While the Austin location was heading toward its end, the brand was quietly getting bigger somewhere else.

Barry Katz was in his late 20s and wanted to grow the business. He looked at Houston, found a space on Westheimer in Montrose, and he and Lisa moved there to open it in 2000. Montrose was the right call. A dense, late-running neighborhood that actually needed a 24-hour kitchen. Barry has said that is where Katz's Never Kloses really took hold as a brand rather than a slogan.

From there they kept going. The Woodlands. The Heights. The Galleria. Each one 24 hours, each one designed by Michael Hsu, which is exactly why he got the Austin job.

The fifth opened September 2, 2025 in Memorial City at 10321 Katy Freeway. Two days before the official opening they ran a public practice service and gave the entire day's revenue to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund after the July 4 Hill Country floods. Instead of a ribbon cutting they did a key cutting, then threw the keys away.

So Katz's never actually died in 2011. It moved down I-10 and grew from one restaurant into five over 25 years.

Barry started working in the West 6th building in 1979. He was eight years old.

By 2024 he and Lisa were already looking at Austin or Dallas for their next market. Then the original building came up for auction at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Austin, and that settled it. Their company bought the property in September 2024. Barry called it a full-circle, bucket-list moment and said he could not believe the chance to bid on it came up at all.

He turned 55 this month, which puts a nice frame on the whole thing. He started in that building as a kid working for his dad. He is reopening it as the owner.

One thing that will be different: Marc Katz is not involved. Barry has been direct about that. They are father and son now, not business partners.

Michael Hsu Office of Architecture released renderings alongside the August 11 groundbreaking announcement, and they lean hard into the original.

The exterior goes back to rich red brick with big windows and black and white striped awnings. NEVER KLOSES gets painted across the front. A vertical neon sign on the corner reads KATZ'S with OPEN 24 HOURS running down the side. At night the whole thing glows.

Inside, green vinyl booths, warm wood, patterned tile floors, and a big central light fixture over the dining room. Classic deli without feeling like a museum.

Expect the menu to look a lot like Houston. Nosh baskets, blintzes, matzo ball soup, pastrami sandwiches, cheese-stuffed potatoes, a full bar, and newer items alongside the classics. Barry has said the goal is to be the best 24-hour restaurant in the country, not just a nostalgia play.

Late spring 2027 is the current target.

The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing lists construction starting September 1, 2026, with completion around March 1, 2027. That leaves a couple of months for buildout, staffing, and permits before doors open.

Restaurant timelines move. Treat spring 2027 as the goal, not a promise.

618 W. 6th St., Austin, TX 78701, at the corner of West 6th and Rio Grande.

Heads up if you go looking at permits: the TDLR filing lists the project at 601 Rio Grande and 620 W. 6th St. Same corner building, different unit numbers on the paperwork. 618 is the address the brand is using.

No. Austin's Katz's has no connection to Katz's Delicatessen on the Lower East Side, the one from When Harry Met Sally. Marc Katz came out of New York and built a New York-style deli here, but the two businesses are unrelated.

Austin loses old places constantly. Liberty Lunch in 1999. Las Manitas in 2008. Hut's Hamburgers, three blocks down West 6th, in 2019. Threadgill's and the original Magnolia Cafe on Lake Austin Blvd, both in 2020. The list keeps growing.

Katz's coming back is the rare reversal. Not a reboot in a strip center off Burnet. The actual building, the actual family, the actual 24-hour format, on the actual corner where it started 48 years ago.

West 6th will have a place to eat at 3 a.m. again. That alone is worth the wait.