Michelin-Recognized Apt 115 Debuts a New Look and Seasonal Tasting Menu in East Austin
The intimate East Austin restaurant and wine bar celebrates eight years with a redesigned bar and a new seasonal tasting menu from chef Joshua van den Berg
Set on the ground floor of the 7East complex, Apt 115 opened in 2018 without a sign on its door, asking guests to find it by reputation alone — an intriguing mystery that became part of its appeal. The remodel preserves the wine bar’s intimate feel while giving the kitchen, bar and entrance a more defined identity.
Owner Joe Pannenbacker, a self-taught sommelier and longtime Austin musician, opened Apt 115 in 2018 with the goal of making it feel as relaxed as a friend’s living room: a handful of seats, a 48-page wine list and a soundtrack pulled straight from his own vinyl collection. The remodel leaves that spirit intact. The records still spin — from the Stooges to Miles Davis — and the goal is still a good night out, not a performance.
“Going out for dinner is supposed to be fun, and drinking wine is supposed to be fun and sometimes that gets lost in pomp and circumstance,” Pannenbacker says. “While we maintain the highest level of service and knowledge, we never want it to be pretentious or stuffy. Our number one job is making sure our guests have a great time, whether that means finding the perfect glass for your mood, having the chef explain every ingredient in a sauce or telling you why the record we’re playing matters.”
In the kitchen
Van den Berg, who runs the line solo, trained at Tampa’s Bern’s Steak House before working at Momofuku’s Má Pêche, Paul Liebrandt’s The Elm and Michelin-starred Aldea in New York. He later cooked at Bunker BKK in Bangkok and won Season 27 of “Chopped.”
His cooking sits at the intersection of French technique and Southeast Asian flavor, with dishes that change every few weeks and reset fully each season. The $120 tasting menu runs eight courses, with wine pairings available from the cellar. Seatings are offered at 5:30, 6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 p.m.
“The new kitchen gives us range we didn’t have before. Same sourcing philosophy, same instincts — but now I can push further. The menu will keep moving seasonally, and guests should expect flavors that are more expressive and a little less predictable,” van den Berg says.
Six stools, no reservation
If the dining room is the friend’s apartment, the bar is the kitchen counter at the party — six seats, no reservation, first come first served and its own menu entirely apart from the tasting room: a daily cheese, martini olives with blue cheese and atomized vermouth, crab and spinach gratin, escargot and a mouth-watering chili dog. The staff recommends that guests arrive early. It fills up fast and nobody’s giving up their seat.
450 bottles deep
Considered the “backbone” of APT 115, the cellar spans more than 450 labels. Their bottles are offered at retail pricing and most are available for purchase to take home. Pannenbacker’s approach to wine service is intuitive to the point of seeming effortless: guests describe what they’re in the mood for in a sentence or two, and the recommendation that comes back is almost always right.
Design details
The redesign lays down exposed aggregate floors, a custom quartzite bar top inlaid with walnut tiles, a new banquette topped in Carrara marble and fresh leather seating throughout. Glassware comes from Gabriel Glas, plateware from Bernardaud and table lamps from Zafferano, while the room keeps its custom lighting by Luke Lamp Company and the original Brian Eno-designed wallpaper.
APT 115 is not trying to become a different restaurant. The records still spin from Pannenbacker’s collection, and the invitation remains the same: good food, good wine and good music for anyone who walks in.
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