Real Estate Photographer in Fredericksburg, TX

A new wine-inspired luxury residential community has finally begun construction in the Texas Hill Country after it was first announced in January of 2024.

The forthcoming 208-acre development includes a world-class vino operation close to home — like in your backyard close.

Puerta del Lobo, a prestigious Mexican winery and lifestyle destination, officially broke ground on the upscale community project in Johnson City, about 25 miles outside of Fredericksburg, according to an October news release.

The winery and its holding company, CB Wine Tourism Developments, won the title of "Mexican Winery of the Year 2025" from the Mexican Association of Sommeliers this year. The project will span across 54 minimum three-acre lots in the Hill Country along U.S. 290, a corridor referred to as the Texas Wine Trail.

This is the brand's first project in the U.S., and it includes plans for a working winery, among other top-notch amenities. Each home will come with its own vineyard, surrounded by event spaces, green spaces, a central clubhouse, pickleball courts, golf simulators, a wedding venue, commercial areas and an "exclusive" boutique hotel, according to Puerta del Lobo's website.

There will also be three chef-led restaurants serving up Texan, traditional Mexican and European food. Information found on the development's website shows that Puerta del Lobo homeowners will have the option of crafting their own personal wine with the support of a master winemaker.

"Our vision for Puerta del Lobo is to create a place that feels authentic to the Hill Country setting, while offering a destination that elevates local culture, celebrates wine, and builds community," said Luis Miguel Correa, CEO of Puerta del Lobo.

Puerta del Lobo has not returned MySA's request for comment. According to the San Antonio Business Journal, home prices will start at $2.9 million for the $30 million development.

Developers say the project is expected to bring several long-term hospitality jobs to the region.

Chef behind three?Michelin?starred Atelier Crenn will bring her celebrated, ingredient?forward philosophy to one of the most anticipated luxury hotels in Texas expected to debut in 2027

FREDERICKSBURG, Texas – Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country and Waldorf Astoria Residences Texas Hill Country proudly announce a culinary collaboration with internationally acclaimed chef Dominique Crenn, who will develop and oversee the signature restaurant at the highly anticipated resort expected to open in 2027. Brought to life by a visionary partnership among Mark Harmon, Robert Radovan, and Tim Sparapani, the resort and residences mark Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts’ debut in Texas—and will also introduce a fresh, independent concept from one of America’s most lauded chefs.

“Chef Crenn is an extraordinary talent with a rare ability to draw out the essence of every ingredient, crafting a culinary experience unlike any other,” said Mark Harmon, developer of Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country. “We want Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country to be more than a destination; it will be place that honors the land, celebrates culture, and offers guests and residents moments of discovery. With Chef Crenn, we aim to further elevate Fredericksburg’s identity as a leading wine and culinary destination by creating experiences that feel local, inspired and enduring.”

“At Waldorf Astoria, our legacy is built on artistry, in design, in hospitality, and in the culinary experiences that connect guests to a true sense of place,” said Dino Michael, senior vice president and category head, luxury brands, Hilton. “Chef Crenn’s creative vision and deep respect for nature align beautifully with the Waldorf Astoria ethos. Together, we’re creating a destination that reflects the spirit of Texas Hill Country while advancing the next chapter of luxury dining.”

The Crenn signature restaurant at Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country promises to be a destination in its own right where world-class design, inspired cuisine, and unforgettable experiences converge. Chef Crenn’s visionary approach—a harmonious blend of artistry, sustainability, and storytelling—will shape a chef-driven menu rooted in French technique, embracing global flavors, and celebrating the region’s rich terroir while elevating Texas Hill Country’s culinary reputation onto the world stage. Guests and residents can expect dishes that blend locally sourced ingredients with a mix of premium seafood and meats, elevated by avant-garde techniques, reflecting both Hill Country heritage and Crenn’s signature creativity. The second-story restaurant will offer a seamless flow between intimate private dining rooms, lively specialty bars, and expansive terraces overlooking the breathtaking Texas Hill Country vistas.

“The Texas Hill Country has a culinary rhythm all its own,” said Chef Dominique Crenn. “This collaboration is a chance to celebrate the land, the people, and the seasons through a new lens—one that’s deeply personal, rooted in nature, and elevated by imagination. I’m honored to bring this vision to life in Fredericksburg, and to be partnering with such an excellent team of hospitality legends to see it through.”

Dominique Crenn’s culinary journey began in France, inspired by her family’s passion for fine dining and early exposure to top regional restaurants. In 1988, she moved to San Francisco to train under legendary chef Jeremiah Tower at Stars, laying a strong foundation in modern gastronomy. She made history as the first female executive chef in Jakarta, leading the kitchen at the Intercontinental Hotel. Returning to San Francisco in 2008, Dominique earned a Michelin star at Luce before opening Atelier Crenn in 2011, where she became the first female chef in the U.S. to earn three Michelin stars. She expanded her culinary empire with Petit Crenn and Bar Crenn. In addition to her restaurants, Dominique authored the bestselling cookbook Atelier Crenn: Metamorphosis of Taste and served as Chief Technical Consultant on the film The Menu. A James Beard Award winner, World’s 50 Best Icon, and TIME 100 honoree, Dominique is a pioneering force dedicated to innovation, sustainability, and equality in the culinary world.

Chef Dominique Crenn is the visionary behind Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. Atelier Crenn was recently ranked #46 on the prestigious North America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Her acclaimed portfolio also includes Bar Crenn, a sophisticated cocktail bar adjacent to Atelier Crenn, and Café Dior by Dominique Crenn in Dallas, a thoughtful collaboration with Maison Dior that seamlessly blends art, fashion, and cuisine into a multisensory culinary experience. Chef Crenn will open her next venture in collaboration with Dior, Monsieur Dior by Dominique Crenn, this fall, at the heart of House of Dior Beverly Hills. Celebrated for her innovative approach and global culinary leadership, Chef Crenn continues to shape and inspire the evolving gastronomic landscape.

Designed in collaboration between Studio CABAN, Paul Duesing Partners, FAB Studio, TIPLER Group and The Abernathy Group, Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country will offer an immersive resort experience. Once open, the property will encompass 60 hotel rooms, 37 resort villas, and 50 private branded residences. Guests and residents will have access to five food and beverage venues, ranging from fine dining to casual concepts, with Crenn’s signature restaurant anchoring the resort’s culinary identity. Additional amenities include an 11,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, two resort-style pools and more. The property is located less than one mile from downtown Fredericksburg and is easily accessible from Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas.

Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country’s partnership with Chef Crenn builds on the brand’s legacy of collaborating with world-class culinary talent to shape the future of fine dining. Across its portfolio, Waldorf Astoria has worked with celebrated chefs such as Michael Anthony (Waldorf Astoria New York), Michael Mina (Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach) along with Clare Smyth and Daniel Boulud (Waldorf Astoria London Admiralty Arch). Each brings a distinctive vision that reflects the culture and character of their destination. Chef Crenn’s addition to this global roster underscores the brand’s ongoing commitment to artistry, sustainability, and extraordinary dining experiences.

For more information on the hotel or residences, please visit waldorfastoriaresidencestexashillcountry.com.

For more information on Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, please visit stories.hilton.com/waldorfastoria.

When the storied Waldorf Astoria announced in the spring that it would open its first Texas resort not in a big city but in Fredericksburg, we wondered what it would mean for this Hill Country town known for its wineries, luscious peaches, and charming (if often kitschy) shops. With a booming tourism scene, Fredericksburg has already attracted a few new boutique hotels recently. Just how upscale can the area go?

We might have a better idea now that the Hilton-owned Waldorf Astoria chain has revealed to Texas Monthly that the resort’s flagship restaurant will be helmed by one of the country’s most acclaimed chefs, Dominique Crenn, who was the first woman to earn the maximum three Michelin stars, for her San Francisco restaurant Atelier Crenn. In addition to being featured on Netflix’s chef profile series Chef’s Table, she has gone on to open several other restaurants—including Bar Crenn, which also received a Michelin star—as well as a farm in the Sonoma Valley called Bleu Belle Farm. (Maybe she can start a Texas equivalent named Bleu Bonnet Farm?) Time magazine listed her as one of the one hundred most influential people for 2024.

The resort, which is being built on 106 acres on the edge of town (on Goehmann Lane, off of U.S. 290), won’t open until 2027, so plans are just taking shape. But Crenn says that her as-yet unnamed restaurant, to be located on the second floor of the Waldorf Astoria’s main building, will be informed by the deep history of Fredericksburg’s agriculture, as well as by its contemporary food-and-beverage community. She’s already visiting with regional farmers—“I drive around, fantasizing about buying a little house somewhere”—with the intention to source as many locally grown ingredients as possible. While the restaurant will not specifically draw on local Germanic culinary traditions, she notes that those types of dishes share commonalities with her native northern France, and she adds that her food is inspired by memories of her German grandmother. “I’m coming there with a lot of humility,” she says.

Although most of Crenn’s restaurants offer only vegetarian and pescatarian menus, she does plan to serve meat to her diners in Texas. There will be an emphasis on game—she’s currently tinkering with a quail terrine. Also, although she built her career on tasting menus, this restaurant will have only à la carte options, at least at the beginning. “It’s important to make sure that it’s very inclusive to anyone who will walk in the door,” she says. (That said, anyone who walks in the door of a Waldorf Astoria restaurant likely has the means to pay for a high-end meal.) She also plans to serve Texas wine, although not exclusively.

Crenn is not new to Texas: She has a partnership in which she oversees Café Dior locations across the country, including one in Dallas that opened earlier this year. That restaurant serves a very ladies-who-lunch selection of tarts, salads, and tea sandwiches. Unlike Café Dior, however, the Waldorf Astoria restaurant will be Crenn’s own concept. She’s not just slapping her name on a building; she is designing the menu and intends to bring in major talent to support it.

Waldorf Astoria has 36 properties around the world, including the iconic grande dame hotel in New York City, which recently reopened after being closed for an epic eight-year renovation. The Waldorf Astoria Texas Hill Country will feature a sixty-room hotel, villa-style residences, a spa, pools, pickleball and tennis courts, and other amenities. Crenn’s won’t be the only restaurant. One of the developers, Mark Harmon, says the property will also have a live-fire-oriented restaurant with “expansive outdoor dining,” a pool bar and grill serving Mexican food, and a specialty coffee shop and bakery.

Big-name chefs and restaurant groups have long expanded their empires to Texas. In the past decade, Washington, D.C.–based José Andrés opened a short-lived location of his Middle Eastern concept Zaytinya in Frisco—it closed after less than two years. More successfully, New York’s Major Food Group has opened locations of its Italian restaurant Carbone and high-end bagel café Sadelle’s in Dallas, and it used the city as a launch site for a new concept called No. 1 Steak. And just this year, the lauded April Bloomfield, who came up in New York City, moved to Austin to oversee MML Hospitality’s culinary program, including the highly anticipated reopening of the Driskill Grill later this year.

If Crenn is looking to add more Michelin stars to her roster, she’s chosen the wrong location—the Michelin Guide to Texas covers only Houston, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, and San Antonio, in addition to a handful of suburbs. Still, her presence, as well as Waldorf Astoria’s, in the once-sleepy town of Fredericksburg represents a milestone in its growth as a tourist destination. It’s a vote of confidence that the area has matured into the kind of destination that people will travel to not just for peaches and fudge and antiquing, but for serious dining as well.

Crenn is already in good company. Just this year, Albert Hotel opened on Main Street, anchored by a restaurant from lauded Austin chef Michael Fojtasek. The Kimpton brand is building a luxury hotel with an attached restaurant as part of the Meuse development. And if Crenn’s restaurant is successful, who knows what other big names will be drawn to the Hill Country? After all, the wine’s already out there.

Michelin, are you listening?

FREDERICKSBURG, Texas – A Fredericksburg resident who won the Sept. 6 Powerball jackpot has received the largest payout in Texas Lottery History.

The unnamed player received $410 million before taxes from the $1.8 billion grand prize, according to a news release from the Texas Lottery.

They purchased the winning ticket at Big’s 103, a gas station located off U.S. Highway 290.

According to Texas Lottery, winning players had the options of a direct cash value option less than the total grand prize or an annuity option where payments are made over a 29-year period for the greater amount.

Seven Bridges Revocable Trust of Fredericksburg claimed the direct payout and said the winnings will be shared with the community.

A representative of the trust said, “This is a moment of gratitude for us, a blessing we plan to enjoy and share with those who are special to us and who serve our community.”

According to Texas Lottery, the winning Fredericksburg resident realized they’d won the jackpot the day after the drawing. The resident was driving to church when they realized they’d won.

“They pulled over to check their numbers a few more times, placed the ticket in the glovebox and went inside,” Texas Lottery said.

The grand prize was shared with a second jackpot winner in Missouri.

Big’s 103 will also receive a $250,000 bonus from the Texas Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

Powerball grand prizes typically start out at $20 million and increase until the jackpot is won. This jackpot was the culmination of 42 drawings, setting the record for the game’s longest jackpot run.

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The Texas Powerball ticketholder who split the $1.78 billion jackpot in September revealed they selected the numbers by accident — but are “blessed” to share the life-changing money with their community.

Seven Bridges Revocable Trust, a group out of Fredericksburg, Texas, stepped forward Monday to claim its half of the second-largest grand prize in Powerball and US lottery history.

The group chose to receive their winnings in a one-time lump sum of $410.3 million.

Numbers were selected by the group, who usually pick at random but decided to make it personal, choosing digits that “were meaningful to them,” the Texas Lottery said on Monday.

The group purchased the ticket at Big’s 103 gas station in Fredericksburg, a rural city, 75 miles west of Austin, but later realized one of the numbers they picked was different from what they had planned to select.

The winning numbers were: 11, 23, 44, 61, 62 and the Powerball was 17.

Members of the group didn’t find out about their lucky accident until they were on their way to church the next morning, causing them to pull over to confirm their transformative win.

The ticketholder stashed the life-changing ticket in their glovebox and went inside the church, according to the lottery.

“We are Texas true to the state and its values. We believe in family, in faith, and in the blessings that come through both. This is a moment of gratitude for us, a blessing we plan to enjoy and share with those who are special to us and who serve our community,” the group told the state lottery through a lawyer.

“We ask for privacy as we look forward to enjoying our lives together as a family. God bless Texas,” the statement added.

The group did not say which number they planned to select.

The gas station received a $250,000 bonus from the lottery for selling the jackpot-winning numbers.

It was the third time a Powerball jackpot was sold in Texas, and first since a $564.1 million grand prize was won in Austin back in 2015.

“We’re excited to celebrate this milestone with the claimant of the largest jackpot prize in Texas Lottery history,” Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation Executive Director Courtney Arbour said. “This record-setting prize shows that any Texas Lottery ticket could be the next big winner, all while helping to generate vital funding for public education and veterans’ services right here in Texas.”

Seven Bridges Revocable Trust will split the $1.78 billion prize with an anonymous winner in Missouri who also chose the lump sum option last month.

The Show-Me State ticketholder purchased their winning ticket at a QuikTrip convenience store in St. Louis, describing himself as a “homebody.”

“I’m like a homebody. The perfect day is sitting at home doing what I do — relaxing,” the winner told the state lottery after claiming his half of the prize. “I’m a millionaire, a multimillionaire, and I’m doing laundry last night.

“It’s the best problem I’ve ever had,” he said.

No one has claimed the Powerball grand prize since Sept. 6 and the jackpot sits at $295 million for Saturday night’s drawing.