Restaurateur Larry Muske has put Shades Cafe back on the menu for Lake Travis boaters and families with the Feb. 4 groundbreaking of its new location at Sail & Ski Yacht Club.

The 1,500-square-foot restaurant will seat about 100 people in indoor and outdoor dining areas and serve lake food such as cheeseburgers and po’boy sandwiches in a family atmosphere. Extra parking and a courtesy dock will accommodate the general public.
Muske, who previously operated Shades Cafe at Point Venture Marina for 15 years, closed its doors in 2007 when he was unable to negotiate a lease with the Point Venture POA.
“Shades is back. We’re bringing Jimmy Buffett in, figuratively,” he joked. “It’s just a funky little South Florida thing.”
As he continued his contracting business, Muske patiently waited for the opportunity to bring Shades back to the lake, and contacted Sail & Ski Center and Yacht Club co-owners Rod Malone and Buzz Watkins about partnering on a restaurant idea.
“We’re very pleased to have the association with Shades. It’s a name that’s known in the community,” Malone said.
The group had a grand vision for a larger restaurant, but septic system installation concerns and a permit process that took more than 18 months forced them to scale it back to the current plan.
They also learned from the demise of Antilles, a restaurant at the yacht club that flooded in 2007.
“We decided we just couldn’t resurrect Antilles,” Malone said. “[The flood] was horribly detrimental to the structure. It had seen too many floods and too much trauma.”
The new Shades Cafe will be built with a solid deck and pavilion, but the kitchens will be in a series of enclosed stainless steel trailers. The building has been designed to withstand submersion and tidal surges.
“When the flood comes, we’ll just unhook the sewer line and unhook the electricity and away we go,” Malone said with a snap of his fingers.
Unless this week’s weather persists through the spring, Muske said he will open the restaurant this summer, ideally before boating season begins Memorial Day and definitely before late July when Sea Ray’s AquaPalooza concert will attract thousands of boaters to the lake.
Shades Cafe will have a bar, but ownership was adamant that the restaurant wouldn’t be rowdy at all hours of the night.
“Believe me, we’ll be partying but it won’t be at 2 a.m.,” Muske said.
He had always wanted to revive his and the restaurant’s connection to Lakeway and 620 Corridor diners who formed a significant portion of his clientele base.
The original Shades Cafe operated a pontoon boat service that shuttled an estimated 16,000 diners from Lakeway Marina annually.
“Everybody loved the boat ride,” he said.
Hardly a day has passed since the restaurant’s closing that a Shades regular doesn’t stop to talk to him in the grocery store or at the dry cleaners.
“They all say, ‘When are you coming back?’ It’s a great feeling” to open the restaurant in Lakeway, Muske said. “I’m pretty excited about getting going again.”