If there was ever a month that showed just how much Austin loves its food, drinks and entertainment, August 2020 was it.

Of course, this wasn’t the Austin everybody remembered.

The usual summer routine of packed bars, live music, festivals, crowded restaurants and late nights had been turned upside down by COVID-19. Austin’s food and nightlife businesses were trying to figure out how to survive while following constantly changing restrictions. Some restaurants were leaning heavily into takeout and delivery. Others were creating outdoor dining spaces. Bars remained one of the hardest-hit parts of the hospitality industry.

And yet, somehow, Austin was still Austin.

There were new restaurants opening, new concepts arriving and even a brand-new cider-and-arcade destination opening along Riverside Drive.

One of the biggest new arrivals came on South Congress. Sweetgreen opened its first Austin location at 1007 South Congress Avenue on August 12 as part of the Music Lane development. The restaurant offered both takeout and dine-in service, including an outdoor patio, while putting new pandemic-era procedures in place for customers and employees.

For a city known for tacos, barbecue, burgers and breakfast, the arrival of a national salad chain might not sound like the biggest Austin food story. But the location itself said a lot about where Austin’s food scene was heading.

Sweetgreen wasn’t simply opening another restaurant. It was arriving in one of the city’s most recognizable dining and shopping corridors at a time when almost every restaurant opening felt like a statement that the city’s food scene wasn’t giving up.

The restaurant also made an effort to connect with Austin. Sweetgreen said it would use Texas vendors and ingredients, including Central Texas farms, Texas olive oil and other locally sourced products. Its opening-week promotion also included a partnership benefiting Caritas of Austin.

Then there was Bishop Cidercade.

The long-awaited combination of cider bar and arcade finally opened its Austin location on August 28 at the former Joe’s Crab Shack property at 600 East Riverside Drive.

And this wasn’t a tiny neighborhood bar.

The Austin Cidercade occupied approximately 13,000 square feet and featured more than 24 ciders on draft, along with wine, hard kombucha, soda and pizza. The location also included a patio overlooking the lake and a large collection of arcade games.

The opening was especially notable because it had already been delayed by the pandemic. The Austin location had originally been expected to open earlier in the year, but restrictions on arcades prevented that from happening.

By the end of August, however, Cidercade was finally open.

That was the strange thing about Austin in the summer of 2020. Businesses weren’t simply opening and closing. They were constantly adapting.

Restaurants were changing their menus. Bars were trying to figure out how to operate under restrictions. Businesses were adding outdoor seating, changing ordering procedures and finding new ways to make money.

Even something as simple as getting a drink changed.

In August, restaurants in Texas were allowed to sell mixed alcoholic drinks for takeout and delivery under a new waiver. That might seem completely normal now, but at the time it was another example of how the pandemic was changing the rules for Austin’s restaurant industry.

The month also delivered a much less happy reminder of how serious things had become.

On August 28, the Austin Food & Wine Festival officially canceled its 2020 event.

The festival had originally been scheduled for April before being postponed to November. But with Austin’s restrictions on large gatherings extended into December, organizers ultimately decided that the 2020 festival couldn’t happen.

For Austin, that was a major loss.

Food festivals are part of what makes this city different. They bring chefs, restaurants, food lovers and visitors together in one place. The cancellation wasn’t simply another event disappearing from the calendar. It was another piece of Austin’s normal identity being put on hold.

The festival encouraged people to continue supporting local restaurants through takeout and other forms of assistance, while ticket holders could receive refunds, roll tickets over to 2021 or donate the value of their tickets to the Austin Food & Wine Alliance.

And then there were the businesses that were simply trying to survive.

Few stories captured that better than Donn’s Depot.

The legendary Austin dive bar, located in an old train station and known for live music, was more than 40 years old in 2020. By the end of August, the people behind the Depot were asking longtime customers for help keeping the business alive.

The proposed “Donn’s Depot All Star Subscription Fund” asked supporters to pledge $50 a month, with a goal of finding 250 people willing to contribute. The money would help cover rent, utilities and reopening expenses while the bar remained severely affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

That story probably represents August 2020 better than almost anything else.

Austin still had new restaurants.

Austin still had new bars and entertainment concepts.

Austin still had patios, takeout cocktails, pizza, cider and food trucks.

But underneath all of it was a city trying to figure out how to keep its personality alive.

For a place where going out to eat, grabbing a drink and listening to live music are such a huge part of everyday life, the pandemic created a challenge that nobody had experienced before.

August 2020 wasn’t about pretending everything was normal.

It was about finding whatever version of normal was possible.

A new salad restaurant opened on South Congress.

A cider bar and arcade finally opened on Riverside.

Restaurants found new ways to sell food and drinks.

Food festivals canceled their plans.

And longtime Austin institutions turned to their customers for help.

Looking back, that’s what makes the summer of 2020 so interesting.

Austin’s food and entertainment scene didn’t simply disappear. It changed shape.

Some of those changes lasted only a few months. Others became permanent parts of the city’s restaurant culture.

And some of the businesses that were fighting to survive in August 2020 would eventually become part of Austin’s history.

But at the time, nobody knew how long it would last.

Austin was simply trying to keep the lights on, keep the kitchens running, keep the drinks flowing and find a reason to get out of the house.

Even in one of the strangest summers the city had ever seen, that still sounded a lot like Austin.