New Round Rock Restaurant Opened by Ranchers with Historical Local Ties

ROUND ROCK, TX - A family of successful ranchers are now serving up grass fed Texas beef at their new Round Rock restaurant, Svante’s.

The restaurant is located at 201 E. Main St., and uses high-quality Texas beef directly from the Swenson ranches, the American-Statesman reported. Most of the other ingredients used in the restaurant come from local farms.

“Just about everything is either produced by farmers or made in-house,” Chris Swenson told the American-Statesman. “We make our own ketchup, mustard, salad dressing. We make them fresh from our own ingredients.”

Svante’s was originally a food truck in Austin that offered “100 percent grass-fed and grass-finished” burgers. The truck became famous for its “Space Jam” burger with sweet bacon onion jam, pepper jack cheese, garlic aioli and fresh local greens.

The highly sought-after burger is now being served at Svante’s permanent restaurant. The restaurant also boasts a special steak every day.

Swenson’s told the American-Statesman his favorite dish is the Hellstrom’s Swedish Beef Stew, which is ladled over mashed potatoes. Swenson is related to Svante Magnus Swenson, the restaurant’s namesake and the first Swedish immigrant in Texas.

Svante Swenson acquired a lot of land when he reached Texas, but was forced to flee to Mexico during the civil war because he opposed slavery. He later moved to New York City, but left behind his Texas land to his family and other Swedish immigrants.

Svante Swenson’s sons, Eric and Swen Swenson, used the land to build ranches in 1882. The meat served at Svante’s restaurant today comes from the remaining ranches.

“I think we’ve taken farm-to-table to a whole other level,” Swenson told the American-Statesman. “Probably because we know where our beef comes from. Other hamburgers will say they serve “all natural,” but that is different from grass fed, grass finished.”

The family plans to open a modest retail store at the restaurant where customers can purchase some of their ingredients for home cooking.

“We’ll be selling some bread, some of our specialty salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, cookies and grass-fed, grass-finished beef,” Swenson told the American-Statesman.