What began as a mobile food truck in Austin in 2010 has grown into a multilocation restaurant and catering business combining Asian and Southern comfort food and drinks.

How it started

The Peached Tortilla first opened as a food truck in September 2010. Founder and owner Eric Silverstein had been practicing law and felt like taking a leap into owning a business.

“I tried to raise money for a restaurant, and that was proven to be pretty challenging. It was an uphill battle in the middle of like the Great Recession of 2008,” Silverstein said. “I ended up pivoting to a food truck because that was a really economical way to get a business going—a hard way to get a business going, but an economical way.”
Eric Silverstein opened The Peached Tortilla's flagship restaurant on Burnet Road in December 2014. (Courtesy The Peached Tortilla)
Eric Silverstein opened The Peached Tortilla's flagship restaurant on Burnet Road in December 2014. (Courtesy The Peached Tortilla)
He said he was inspired by food trucks in Los Angeles and New York, and wanted to create an Asian-Southern fusion concept. Silverstein was born in Tokyo and raised in Atlanta.

In the beginning, The Peached Tortilla food truck didn’t have much equipment, so Silverstein focused on street food items, such as tacos, burritos, bowls and sliders. He said they did pop-up services at offices, breweries, bars and The University of Texas at Austin campus.


What’s on the menu

The opening of The Peached Tortilla restaurant on Burnet Road in December 2014 allowed Silverstein to experiment more and offer more menu items inspired by meals he grew up with.

“Asian comfort food, to me, is kind of the food I grew up eating,” Silverstein said. “I wouldn't say it's represented heavily on the truck. I would say it's more represented in the restaurants. Items like our Mom's Toast, which is a version of shrimp toast, which is a traditional Chinese dish, or Southern Fun, which is a version of chow fun.”
The JapaJam Burger ($15) is a 6-ounce all-beef patty with tomato jam, pepper jack cheese, tempura onion strings, a fried egg and Chinese barbecue sauce. (Courtesy The Peached Tortilla)
The JapaJam Burger ($15) is a 6-ounce all-beef patty with tomato jam, pepper jack cheese, tempura onion strings, a fried egg and Chinese barbecue sauce. (Courtesy The Peached Tortilla)
Other items, such as the longtime Peached Tortilla favorite JapaJam Burger served at the Burnet Road location, also have Southern and Asian elements.

The Peached Tortilla opened another restaurant in Cedar Park in March, which offers some of the same items from the flagship location. Both restaurants also have a kids menu.


What else?

The Peached Tortilla brand has continued to grow since the food truck’s opening.

In 2018, Silverstein opened Bar Peached, a Peached Tortilla bar-focused concept, in the Clarksville neighborhood. The bar offers beer, wine, sake and regular and draft cocktails.
Bar Peached opened on W. Sixth Street in 2018. (Courtesy The Peached Tortilla)
Bar Peached opened on West Sixth Street in 2018. (Courtesy The Peached Tortilla)
“It's such a unique space,” he said. “It's an old bungalow, it's an old house. ... The goal is to be perhaps a little more relaxed of a dining experience. We have a bigger bar there, and we wanted the menu to be a little more bar-focused there as well.”

Silverstein said some of the drinks also have hints of Asian-fusion elements, such as the State of Mind cocktail made of gin, strawberry shrub, lime, ginger and Chinese five-spice.


Bar Peached’s lunch and dinner specials—such as ramen nights, Steak and Frites Tuesdays, and Fried Chicken and Whiskey Wednesdays—offer more Asian-Southern items to try in a more relaxed dining space.

Besides the two restaurants and Bar Peached, The Peached Tortilla also has a location inside the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport; a multifunctional event and catering venue, Peached Social House, in Central Austin; and the food truck used for catering events.

Nearly 10 years after moving The Peached Tortilla into its first restaurant, Silverstein said his current focus is growing the Cedar Park location.

“I think Austin still embraces the story of the small guy, whether it's a food truck or a food trailer, evolving into a restaurant,” Silverstein said. “So I feel like we were embraced when we opened our first restaurant. It felt like a huge undertaking at that time. ... So yeah, the 10 years is a milestone, for sure.”