Frank and Margie’s brings chef-driven pizza and pasta to Round Rock

Handmade pasta has a new address in Round Rock. Frank and Margie’s opened Saturday at 1401 S. I-35 Frontage Road, Suite 120, in the former Odd’s Bar + Bistro space, turning a recently vacated bar-and-bistro room into a chef-driven Italian American dining room with Scratch Restaurants Group’s signature precision.

The project comes from husband-and-wife chefs Phillip Frankland Lee and Margarita Kallas-Lee, whose names are usually tied to tasting-menu dining and polished technique at concepts such as Pasta|Bar and Sushi by Scratch Restaurants. Here, that background shows up in a more relaxed neighborhood format. The restaurant describes itself as “food first, always,” and frames the room as “Round Rock’s New Favorite Table” with “East Austin Energy” and “Italian Soul,” a clear signal that the goal is not just another pasta stop off I-35, but a more buttoned-up destination with a casual pulse.

The menu is built around thin-crust pizzas, handmade pastas, scratch mozzarella, seasonal salads, secondi, cocktails, wine and local beer. Early standouts include lamb ragu pappardelle, lobster cavatelli, rigatoni alla vodka and fettuccine Alfredo, alongside classic cheese and Margherita pizzas, pepperoni with candied local jalapeños and a signature bone marrow pizza. Dessert begins with a fig leaf and strawberry tiramisu, with more sweets rotating through Margarita Kallas-Lee’s pastry program.

Community Impact reported that the room seats about 100, and that the chefs wanted the space to feel fun, familiar and a little unexpected without losing the level of attention that defines Scratch. The restaurant opens Wednesday through Sunday beginning at 5 p.m., which makes it a dinner-first spot built for repeat visits rather than a one-and-done splash. That matters in Round Rock, where the former Odd’s Bar + Bistro closed in March before the Scratch team moved in, and where a polished pasta house now occupies the old footprint.

Frank and Margie’s also arrives with timing that gives the opening extra weight. Pasta|Bar in Austin closed in February after about four years, and this new dining room feels like a pivot toward something more accessible without abandoning the chefs’ technical identity. In Round Rock, that means the former Odd’s Bar + Bistro space is no longer just a turnover story. It is now a place where the pasta is handmade, the pizzas are thin-crusted and the pedigree comes plated with the meal.