A federal grant will help longtime Tex-Mex establishment Cisco’s Restaurant, Bakery & Bar, survive in its now-gentrified East Austin neighborhood. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has awarded the Austin stalwart $50,000 in the form of a grant to support small, historical businesses.
The trust’s Backing Historic Small Restaurants program gave $2.5 million to 50 restaurants this year, with every restaurant receiving $50,000.
Rudy “Cisco” Cisneros, opened the restaurant at 1511 East Sixth Street 74 years ago, and it quickly became a place where local and state officials and semi-luminaries mingled low-key with and often unnoticed by the locals — a mix matched only by the late, great Las Manitas downtown.
Matt Cisneros took over the business from his grandfather in 2017, keeping the atmosphere and quirky building elements intact. He told local NPR affiliate KUT that he didn’t want his family’s legacy to end as Austin changed.
“We [wanted to] save this, keep the livelihood of our employees going as well as the people who come in all the time, and [keep] the generational ties to the restaurant,” he said.
The grant money will be used for repairs and upkeep to the 120-year-old building, restoring the exterior and repainting its murals, Cisneros said.
