The Dispatch
What is going on in El Paso
Our own writing about the city: what the season is doing, what changed around town, and explainers on how things here actually work. When news breaks, we would rather send you to the newsroom covering it than repeat it badly.
The Sun Bowl has a new name, and it is a very El Paso one
Old El Paso replaced Tony the Tiger as title sponsor this month. The 93rd game is still December 31, still on CBS, still cut into the side of the mountain.
Read the dispatch →Openings & closings
What changed around town
Every row is something we confirmed, with the source that confirmed it. When a place closes it comes off our lists and lands here.
- ComingPhase 1 targeted for fall 2026
Wyler Aerial Tramway
The gondola to Ranger Peak has been closed since 2018. Roughly $27 million in state funding is rebuilding the site — parking, access and restrooms first, the tramway itself in a later phase that still needs fundraising.
Texas Parks & Wildlife - OpenedMarch 2025
El Paso Mexican American Cultural Center
A three-story, $15 million cultural center opened at the Main Library downtown after years of community pressure, with exhibits, performance space and the Día de los Muertos desfile attached to it.
El Paso Matters - OpenedAugust 2024
La Nube STEAM Discovery Center
El Paso’s first children’s museum and science center opened downtown in a 70,000-square-foot cloud-shaped building, and has since drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors and a global children’s museum award.
La Nube - ClosedClosed
Ode Brewing Co.
The N Mesa brewery and kitchen, one of the first of the modern El Paso brewery wave, is listed as closed.
- Moved2024
Elemi
The James Beard-recognized masa restaurant left its downtown room on N Kansas and reopened in a larger space at 13500 Eastlake Blvd in far east El Paso. A sister taquería later opened on Paseo del Norte on the West Side.
El Paso Times - ClosedClosed
Tabla
The Union Plaza tapas room at 115 Durango is gone. The Tiki Room now occupies that address, so the block is still worth walking to.
- Closed2021
H&H Car Wash and Coffee Shop
The James Beard America’s Classics winner on E Yandell — a coffee shop attached to a hand car wash, run by Maynard Haddad for roughly 63 years — closed and has not reopened. It remains the most-missed room in the city.
Texas Monthly
- DispatchSeptember 20, 2026 · 4 min read
September in El Paso: the best month nobody warns you about
The heat breaks, the calendar fills up, and the mountain turns green. Here is what the next few weeks actually look like.
- OutdoorsSeptember 18, 2026 · 4 min read
What is actually happening with the Wyler Aerial Tramway
Closed since 2018, funded at roughly $27 million, and still not something you can ride. Here is the honest timeline.
- DispatchSeptember 14, 2026 · 4 min read
Downtown quietly grew a museum district
La Nube opened in 2024, the Mexican American Cultural Center in 2025. With the art and history museums already there, six blocks now hold a genuine day out.
- Site UpdateSeptember 12, 2026 · 3 min read
Where to get real El Paso news
We write guides. For breaking coverage, these are the newsrooms we read — and why we would rather send you to them than repeat them badly.
- FoodSeptember 7, 2026 · 3 min read
El Paso’s tacos are a statewide story now
Four local spots landed on Texas Monthly’s ranking of the 50 best taco restaurants in Texas. Two of them are nowhere near downtown.
- FoodAugust 28, 2026 · 4 min read
Chile season, and the smell that runs the borderland in late summer
Roasters turning on parking lots from August into the fall. What to buy, how much, and what to do with it.
- OutdoorsJuly 22, 2026 · 4 min read
Monsoon season, explained for people who just moved here
A desert city that gets most of its rain in eight weeks, mostly in the late afternoon, sometimes all at once.
- OutdoorsJune 10, 2026 · 3 min read
The summer heat playbook: how locals actually spend June
Everything worth doing here between June and mid-July happens before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m. Here is the schedule.
- EventsApril 18, 2026 · 3 min read
How a Chihuahuas night downtown actually works
Park once, eat, walk to the game, and end up at a bar. The best-value evening in the city, laid out end to end.
- Site UpdateMarch 2, 2026 · 2 min read
What this site is, and what is coming next
An independent, locally-written guide to El Paso — built to be updated constantly rather than published once.