The turf is down and the Adirondack chairs are seated in the front courtyard of Frank’s Backyard — the new 2,520-sq.-ft. beer garden wedged in Frank’s Pizza’s side yard on Travis St. Frank’s opened the lawn 2 days ago in place of a parking lot that once spanned all the way from the historic restaurant building on the corner of Travis and Prairie — home to both Frank’s and El Big Bad — north to Preston St. Hines’s Aris Market Square apartment has since taken over the northern portion of that lot along Preston. Its ground floor tenant Bravery Chef Hall borders Frank’s Backyard’s northern side.

At the end of the courtyard, an Airstream trailer-turned-bar sits parked beyond the garage door:

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Something more street-legal towed that hollowed-out camper into the field house back in October 2016. Construction got started a few years before that, after plans for an equally narrow but less outdoorsy restaurant were scrapped.

An upper-level deck provides additional seating above the garage-like space:

The photo below shows landscaping underway on the yard back when Aris Market Square was up on the former parking lot but Frank’s lawn was still fenced-off and unseeded:

Photos: Marc Longoria (Frank’s Backyard); Frank’s Backyard (construction)

Downtown Beer Garden