Mattie's at Green Pastures

Mattie's at Green Pastures sits in an 1895 Victorian house in Bouldin Creek, a Texas Recorded Historic Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, on grounds shaded by live oaks and patrolled by resident peacocks. It first opened as a restaurant in 1946, and the most important fact about it is not architectural: it served customers of all races eighteen years before Austin's restaurants were desegregated by law. It was renovated and reopened as Mattie's in 2017, named for the property's matriarch.

The Infatuation's Raphael Brion put the place's role well — people from across Austin have come here for Easter brunches, wedding receptions and close encounters with the peacocks who roam the grounds. Those are the occasions that fill the building, and they are worth naming, because they are precisely the occasions where not drinking is most conspicuous. A wedding reception, an Easter brunch and a milestone birthday are all events where a glass gets raised and someone notices what is in yours.

The kitchen cooks pan-Southern farm-fresh food, and the bar leans the same way — the John Henry's Julep with Still Austin bourbon is the house signature. For non-drinkers the standing option is the Back Porch Tea, explicitly available in a non-alcoholic preparation: spearmint and eucalyptus tea with wildflower honey, lemon and fresh mint.

That a single drink can be ordered either way is the useful part. Eucalyptus and spearmint give it a cooling, almost medicinal length that holds up against rich Southern food, and honey supplies the body that alcohol would otherwise provide. On a wraparound porch in August it is the right drink whether or not there is bourbon in it, which means the choice stops being a statement.

Open Wednesday to Friday evenings, with lunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.