Fourths Handcrafted Burgers has recently opened on South Congress, offering their take on fast casual burger joint in Austin. South Congress has needed another real burger joint for a while now. After Hopdoddy, the next name people throw out is P. Terry’s, and that’s basically it. Everything else on that street serves a burger because a menu needs one, not because burgers are the point. Fourths just opened straight into that gap, drive-thru included, with free parking included.

The address previously belonged to Plaza Colombian Coffee, which ran a drive-thru window and a tiki bar patio out of that same lot for years before it closed. Fourths is using that drive-thru, patio format to it’s advantage, as the second operator at 3842 S Congress. The rebuild keeps the bones and points them at burgers instead of arepas.

The new family owned fast casual restaurant serves 1/4lb beef patty burgers made with a custom blend of ground chuck, brisket, short rib, and bone marrow, stacked with cheddar, jalapeños, bacon, lettuce, and tomato on a Japanese milk bread bun. Sides run through onion rings served with a ranch-forward dip, and flavorful chicken tenders finished with hot honey, or Nashville hot rub, alongside a barbecue and ranch dipping combo.

There’s also an astonishingly delicious wagyu beef hot dog, and corn dog on the menu, a sign the kitchen isn’t treating anything outside the burger as an afterthought. Hand-spun shakes and specialty coffee round out the menu, built to work as easily at breakfast as it does at last call.

Beyond the burgers, the menu also covers chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, a wagyu beef hotdog, fries, loaded sides, hand-spun shakes, and specialty coffee drinks, everything made to order. It is a menu built to work at 11am for coffee and a breakfast sandwich and again at 9pm for a burger and a beer on the patio.

Beer runs through the Texas Vine & Brew Garden, the patio built for lingering rather than turning tables fast. The tap list currently runs four handles deep, including a Karbach Texas Lager and a Kolsch-style ale from Slot-T, alongside a rotating hazy IPA. Bottled options and fountain soda round out a drink menu that’s handwritten on a chalkboard, the kind of detail that signals a place still finding its permanent footing rather than one that’s already locked into a corporate print run.

Inside, exposed brick reads FOURTH POUND CLUB in stenciled paint, next to black-and-white prints of the Texas flag and the Austin skyline, a room that doesn’t try too hard for a spot this close to South Congress’s tourist gravity. The patio itself is probably the biggest idea. Owner Blake Johnson hopes the “Vine & Brew Garden” on the lot will soon become the go-to neighborhood hangout, with a few nights of live music filled with guests sprawled out and relaxing with their dogs, making it welcoming spot that actually wants you to stay a while.

Fourths
3842 S Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78704
fourthsaustin.com