Megan Navarro
WIMBERLEY — Ryan Zachry and Adam Puskorius are able to move forward with the years-long project of turning their once-food truck, Neon Armadillo, into a brick-and-mortar location later this fall.
The food truck ran in the Wimberley Square from July 2024-25 and will transition into its permanent home at 9595 Ranch Road 12, within what locals call "The Junction" — where highways 12 and 32 meet — about four miles east of Wimberley and eight miles west of San Marcos. On the approximately 11-acre property, Zachry and Puskorius are going to be using a piece of the land for their 30,000 square-foot restaurant that includes dining, a bar and entertainment space designed to offer a family-friendly environment.
“We've been kind of developing this concept for the last two [to] two and a half years, something like that. We were able to launch a food truck to kind of introduce ourselves with the community, get some feedback and work out some things with the recipes,” Zachry explained. “The brick-and-mortar was always the intention. We had been through the design phase and started building things and, obviously, things take time, and we just felt like it was time to do something. So, we launched the food trailer.”
The name, Neon Armadillo, and brand stem from a sign that co-founder and designer Molly Bowen found at the Round Top Antiques Fair a few years back.
Then, the concept of the place was to give something that was family-friendly to the community and meet the needs that they have.
“People who live here have families; people that travel here come with families. That was kind of a whole idea behind this is what we considered,” Zachry said. “We call it a Hill Country playground, which can mean multiple things. Obviously, for kids, we're gonna have plenty of playscape areas for them, but also an adult playground, as well, [with] live music [and] sports.”
For the food aspect, chef Puskorius — who is also the operating partner at Neon Armadillo’s sister restaurant, Creekhouse Kitchen & Bar — shared that they are working to blend Tex-Mex and barbecue together in a cleaner direction.
In doing so, they have built a close collaboration with Austin-based Force of Nature Meats to serve their regenerative grass-fed brisket. The brisket is smoked over Texas hardwoods, chicken is prepared pollo al carbon style and all frying is done with local beef tallow to completely eliminate seed oils. Menu highlights include smoked brisket and tri-tip, smoked grass-fed lamb carnitas, al pastor–style pulled pork, pasture-raised smoked chicken, as well as kid-friendly Force Of Nature burgers and hot dogs, the co-owners said.
“It's been done here and there, but we kind of leaned in to get people familiar food that they can recognize. We took it to another level. We paired up with a lot of good ranchers and farmers doing things the right away. So, we leaned into having all of our meats be regenerative, grass-fed or pasture-raised, as well as a lot of the menu items being local and organic, following the Dirty Dozen, and just giving people a cleaner way to eat, but still familiar and still really, really tasty,” Puskorius said. “We wanted to give the guests the power to spend their dollar the right way, which leads back to them.”
Neon Armadillo will also have a highly-curated spirits list, with a focus on organic and sustainable brands, including Pantalones Tequila and Rosaluna Mezcal, along with Texas beers on draft and non-alcoholic options, such as agua frescas and house-made sodas.
The brick-and-mortar space will open its doors to the public by Nov. 5. For more information, visit neonarmadillowtx.com and follow @neonarmadillow on Instagram.
