A few weeks ago, soon after my Charleston-to-Houston flight landed, I met a friend for brunch at the new and light-filled restaurant Latuli in Houston’s Memorial neighborhood. The big-grinning chef, Bryan Caswell, described how he’d collected yeast from his Gulf Coast fish camp to give his pizza dough the perfect rise. Then he sent me on my way to the Round Top Winter Antiques & Design Show with an iced go-bag of his smoked redfish dip, pimento cheese, pepper pickles, crackers, potato chips, cookies, and peanut butter truffles. Thanks to Caswell, I got at least one thing right on my first visit to Round Top: I brought plenty of snacks. Whether you stock up in Houston or Austin (Round Top sits about halfway between them) or on the hour-and-a-half drive in, keeping provisions on hand means you can save all your time for the antiques hunt.
As soon as I was a couple of miles out from Round Top (population: ninety), the views started murmuring directly to my soul: hand-painted signs for antiques shops, horses grazing in pastures behind weathered fence posts, pecan trees standing watch over it all. I grabbed a third chocolate chip cookie and decided to shop all the way (to my temporary) home.
Beyond snacks, here are a few more tips for tackling this bustling small town.
Book a Room Early or Off-Season
Local advice that absolutely resonates: Secure your digs early if you’re planning to attend one of the official fairs. (Next up is the spring show from March 23–28, followed by the fall show October 25–31 and the winter show January 21–24, 2027.) But pretty much everyone I chatted with said they’re seeing more interest from visitors between shows, and some businesses are responding by staying open year-round.
Thankfully, Round Top has upped its overnight hosting capacity and added quite a few lovely lodging options. There’s the chic Hotel Lulu right downtown on Henkel Square, a collection of renovated historic buildings refashioned into jewel-box rooms and bunkhouses. Other worthy getaways include the Red Antler Bungalows (families might spring for its Branca room, which has a full kitchen); the Frenchie Boutique, with its cute poolside suites and private porches; or the Wander Inn, the hip village of houses and cottages from the sisters behind the HGTV series Junk Gypsies.
I counted my blessings when I drove up to the stunning, newly built farmhouse on twenty-one acres, the designer Emily Seiders’s passion project, Hideaway Round Top. With white oak finishes and artwork in every nook, the property is a beautiful expression of Seiders’s deep connection to her home state. The two sweet cottages beside the main farmhouse are rentable, too, and ideal for a couple or a mom-and-daughter duo who want a quiet getaway before diving into another fair day.
Shop, Walk, and Discover Secret Gardens
Before arriving, I think I envisioned one main market with vendors clustered around, something akin to the flea market I shop most regularly, Renninger’s, near where my folks live in Mount Dora, Florida. But I was not prepared for the twenty-plus miles of roadside fields, barns, tents, and shops that make up Round Top’s scene. Thankfully, I’d surveyed interior designers and tastemakers (find their pointers in this great big guide to shopping Round Top) and many folks agreed on a few favorites: Market Hill, Blue Hills, and Marburger Farm.
At Market Hill, the sheer scale of the items wowed me, especially at the vendor Architectural Artifacts—twenty-foot-long Italian marble and hand-carved wooden bars; massive oak tables from France; gilded mirrors larger than any wall in my house. How does that travel saying go? Take only pictures, leave only wishes of eighteenth-century European furniture that’s out of my budget?
At Blue Hills, I bumped into fellow Charlestonian and interior designer Grace Frederick, who showed me the stack of watercolors and art prints she’d scored from Maps and Art. Later, I got a private tour through Marburger Farm’s massive construction project. The team there is renovating the historic structures that make up this incredible high-end market. Once complete—ambitiously, in time for the upcoming spring show—the new layout will feel a bit like an old-school Texas town square, with a dining court overlooking the property’s picturesque pond.
I might have been a new visitor, but I can spot a town’s crown jewel when I see it: My surprise favorite discovery was the 210-acre Festival Hill campus, where the Round Top Festival Institute transforms into a youth music camp each year. Visitors are welcome to explore the grounds, where paths wind around secret gardens, fountains, grottoes, and a storybook chapel. Check the calendar for upcoming events, including a plant sale in March and performances when you can sit inside the awe-inspiring concert hall, a soaring miracle of woodwork by local carpenters.
Eat, Drink, and Delight in the Hot Sauce
The 1880s bungalow housing Round Top Coffee Shop also serves as the unofficial town hall. Each morning it might play host to friends, family, lovers, prayer circles, business partnerships, breakups, and makeups, but I was there for a cappuccino and a breakfast taco. I met up with Rob and Shanna Schanen, who with their daughter, Skylar, founded the buzzy Round Top Film Festival. While Shanna filled me in on this year’s lineup (November 12–15; last year’s guest list included members of the Landman cast), Rob slid me a bottle of his own Texas-made Ricky Robby’s Ranch Sauce and I doused each taco bite in the zingy, peppery stuff.
For crisp salads, sandwiches, and a stellar wine list that includes Champagne by the glass, the sunny bistro Boon & Company checks all the boxes. Set under the canopy of oak trees in downtown’s Henkel Square, Royers Pie Haven is a long-running spot for slices of savory chicken potpie and fun mash-ups like red velvet–Oreo. Hotel Lulu is also a natural gathering spot for a bite, offering three daily meals at the on-site Lulu’s restaurant. The hotel also boasts the hottest little bar in town, Il Cuculo, with a whimsical floor-to-ceiling mural and a cocktail menu that includes an Italian margarita laced with amaretto.
If you’re in Round Top during any of the markets, there will surely be plenty of notable food pop-ups and chef collaborations. During the winter market and my trip, Garden & Gun and Explore Charleston hosted a dinner with lauded Houston chef Aaron Bludorn. He smartly blended Charleston and Lone Star State ingredients and techniques into such unforgettable bites as Lowcountry Oyster Co. oysters with Texas pepper dressing, and braised beef short ribs over South Carolina’s Anson Mills grits.
The snow and ice storm making its way across the South prompted me to move up my flight home, so I sadly missed my final day of exploring. But on the way to my airport gate, I pulled up a barstool at an outpost of the Houston restaurant the writers (and G&G contributors) Bao Ong and Kayla Stewart always shout out, the Breakfast Klub. The cup of coffee and bacon-egg-and-cheese with Cajun Chef hot sauce felt like the proper send-off until my next trip to treasure-filled Texas.
Read More on Round Top
>> Round Top’s Grandest New Lodging Is a Study in Artful Texas Minimalism
>> The Great Big Guide to Shopping the Round Top Antiques Fair
CJ Lotz Diego is Garden & Gun’s senior editor. A staffer since 2013, she wrote G&G’s bestselling Bless Your Heart trivia game, edits the Due South travel section, and covers gardens, books, and art. Originally from Eureka, Missouri, she graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where she tends a downtown pocket garden with her florist husband, Max.
