MML Hospitality is Bringing Their Powerhouse Brand Beyond Austin City Limits

The Buzziest Upcoming Projects from the Group Behind Perla's, Elizabeth Street Café, and Hotel Saint Vincent

By Caitlin Clark // Jan 20, 2023

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Las Montañas, a new Tex-Mex concept from MML hospitality in downtown Aspen, Colorado. (photo by Matt Harrinton)

In 2021, two of Austin’s longtime pioneers of cool joined forces. Larry McGuire’s MMH, the firm behind Perla’s Oyster Bar, Elizabeth Street Café, and Josephine House, welcomed Liz Lambert, the creative force behind Hotel San José and Saint Cecilia, officially becoming MML Hospitality. The partners’ first major collaboration (along with MMH co-founder Tom Moorman) was the Hotel Saint Vincent, a 19th-century New Orleans asylum turned design-forward oasis attracting a starry clientele along Magazine Street. (We won’t name names, but given NOLA’s exploding film industry, any A-lister could be in contention.)

Now there’s a stable of buzzy MML projects — several hotel and dining concepts have been quietly announced — extending the firm’s unique vision well beyond Austin city limits. There’s Mountain Chalet, a 1950s-built lodge at the base of Aspen Mountain (acquired for $68 million) to be preserved and revitalized by the MML team. Aspen recently welcomed the second Clark’s Oyster Bar (Houston will receive the third) and a new concept, Las Montañas, offering elevated Tex-Mex at 7,910 feet.

hotel saint vincent-mml hospitality liz lambert — Elizabeth Street Café brings a taste of Austin to New Orleans at the Hotel Saint Vincent. (photo courtesy of MML Hospitality)

Of course, there’s still plenty of MML magic in the works for Austin, a city whose modern image both Lambert and McGuire have helped define. The upcoming Sixth & Blanco development, located at the intersection of West Sixth and Blanco streets, will be designed by powerhouse Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron (it’s their first project in Texas) and built from mass-timber, occupying a city block of existing shops and homes built in the 1920s. MML also announced that three new restaurants — Rosie’s, Howard’s, and Pecan Square Café — would join Swedish Hill and the original Clark’s Oyster Bar, ensuring an aesthetic foothold along an evolving West Sixth Street.