AUSTIN, Texas — Months after the controversial closure of Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ in Buda, a Texas icon will take its place.
The owners of the iconic Salt Lick BBQ will bring a new family-style concept, Roxie’s, to the Buda Grain & Mill Co. space left behind by Valentina’s.
Salt Lick BBQ owner Scott Roberts said Roxie’s will bring a completely new menu focused on family recipes from his grandmother, Roxanna, in a similar fashion to how his great-grandmother laid the foundation for The Salt Lick. The new concept is also a homecoming for Roberts, a former student at Buda Elementary.
“Roxie’s has been a dream of mine for the last 10 years,” Roberts said. “Buda values tradition and community, and that’s exactly what we’re bringing to the table at Roxie’s.”
The restaurant will open daily for lunch and dinner this spring, about a year after Valentina’s first closed.
What happened to Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ?
In April, Valentina’s owners abruptly closed the restaurant, saying it would soon be under new management.
However, the Austin Business Journal reported that Valentina’s had issues dating back to October 2023, determining that the restaurant owed more than $2 million to various people and organizations.
Employees echoed the restaurant’s financial concerns, claiming missing payments, cash payments instead of checks, and intense labor back when Valentina’s was a food truck in South Austin. Those claims led to an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division.
Valentina’s was scheduled to reopen in May, but that never happened. Instead, the restaurant shut down for good in August as Buda officials offered incentives for someone to take over the space.
The restaurant’s co-owner, Miguel Vidal, said he was trying to make things right for everyone after struggling with rent and taxes.
“I’m not trying to avoid people,” Vidal said. “It’s been hard for us too. It’s not like I didn’t just pay anybody. If a check was not going through and I told them we couldn’t pay, we tried to make it right within a week.”
Vidal said he contacted a restaurant finance company, inKind, for help before claiming his landlords shut them out for unpaid rent. Meanwhile, inKind said they couldn’t reach Vidal for weeks while negotiating “a win-win outcome” for the owners and restaurant staff.