Chef Laila Bazahm, who already gave East Austin a Spanish restaurant (El Raval, 2023) and a Southeast Asian one (Siti, 2025), is opening restaurant number three. Shola, expected in November at 105 Tillery St., takes on India's dhaba tradition — rustic roadside cooking over open flame — and runs it through a Central Texas barbecue pit.
The name means "living flame" in Urdu and Hindi, and the kitchen backs that up with a custom J&R Oyler smoker running post oak for eight to 12 hours, plus a tandoor for kebabs and naan. The menu, developed with New York chef Hari Nayak, includes masala queso with smoked paneer, oak-smoked brisket nihari, tamarind pork ribs, and biryani with a choice of smoked brisket, goat, chicken, or jackfruit. A two-person Shola Feast stacks bone-in chicken, brisket, and sausage with gunpowder potatoes and tandoori broccoli.
Shola takes over the space Grizzelda's occupied for nearly a decade, in the Tillery/East César Chávez stretch near Sawyer & Co., De Nada Cantina, and Central Machine Works. Exact opening date, hours, and reservations haven't been announced — so for now, this is one to watch, not one to book.