The details
The restaurant, which recently passed its inspections, held a soft opening with a limited menu in late November, and customers were excited to welcome the business to town.
“We thought the food was delicious, and the service and employees were great,” Robin Bridges Rudloff, a Bastrop resident, said in a Facebook post following her first meal at Dockside BTX.
Josh Nguyen, who owns the business with John Gross, told Community Impact he was surprised by the warm welcome.
“It was a little rough when we opened, because we were doing construction and then opened that same week,” he said. “So it was definitely humbling to see all the people that came out and to hear the great feedback from them.”
What’s on the menu
Dockside BTX plans to expand its menu—which features seafood boils and fried foods—in the coming weeks.
“We’re going to stick to our core menu until we get all the kinks worked out,” Nguyen said. “One of the items that you might see on the menu over the next couple of weeks is oysters, and that’s something that a lot of people have been asking for.”
Some background
Although Dockside BTX planned to open in late 2024, Nguyen cited permitting and renovation issues as the cause for the nearly one-year delay.
“Whenever we finished something with the building, another issue came about,” he said. “We had to find contractors for all of those things. It just took so much time, so it feels great finally opening.”
Nguyen, who relies on family recipes and serves seafood caught by his parents’ fishing operation in Seadrift, also owns Dockside Boiling Pot in Victoria, which opened in 2018.
What else?
Regular operating hours are from 4-9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and from noon-9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
One more thing
Dockside BTX fills the former Cedar's Mediterranean Grill, which closed in January 2024 after owner, chef, and longtime Bastrop resident Khalil Younes passed away.
- Opened Nov. 22
- 904 College St., Bastrop
- Facebook: Dockside BTX
