The Social Hub of Austin

“Sorry we’re open,” the warm and interesting welcome you receive as you enter Magnolia Café located on Lake Austin Boulevard. Surrounded by an Animal Hospital across the street, Deep Eddy’s, and apartment buildings with a gas station on the corner, Magnolia Café glows along with the night life and business in the city of Austin, inviting all to come and join the good food and dinosaurs that lie within. The restaurant is welcoming with its chaotic, yet comforting look and a uniqueness that other restaurants in the area cannot compete against. The structure lures in awkward couples sitting side by side in comfy booths, it grasps the eyes of ambitious students looking to get some work done on the decorated tables, and it brings in guys looking to strengthen their bromances enchanted like flies to the neon lights. That’s not all the bros are attracted to as groups of girls walk in the joint to have a good meal after a football game or simply dinner with friends. Tables range from small to large with people of all different ages. Open “twenty four hours, eight days a week”, Magnolia Café allows friends to gather at different times of day whether it is 3am or 1pm and the sound of excited, romantic, and whispering voices and chatter drown out the music playing in the background. It’s a place of gathering and expression. The diversity of the people that come to magnolias fits the diverse and random expressive décor of the café. The café brings in different people because; it to itself is weird and quirky. Flamingos, Pterodactyls, children’s imaginative drawings tacked to the wall, and flowers at the center of each table decorate the colored walls of the restaurant adding to the festive atmosphere. No table top is the same ranging from floral prints to artistic patterns to pink and black skulls. A large wooden pterodactyl hangs from the ceiling as if looking to pick off the plates of hungry people. A light up vine wrapped around a radiant pink flower on the far wall from the entrance lights up a chalkboard dessert and tea menu infested with drawings of dinosaurs. The restaurant is split into two with a kitchen in the center which connects the two sides of the cafe. Large windows in the building allow natural light during the day to shine through, but trap in the neon glow during the night. Tree’s around the restaurant keep it cool and gives the essence of a backyard in a city. The childlike atmosphere emits a sense of belonging as if being home. Waiters are nice and treat you as if family making service great. Casual attire adds to the feeling of being home and seeing the workers happily socialize in the kitchen adds to a friendly environment. Our waitress was kind enough to answer a few questions we had about magnolia’s, including why there was an infestation of flamingos, well kinda.…………Dog Friendly, Tasty food, good friends, and spunky décor makes magnolia’s a fun experience. But leaving magnolias always puts people down, so as the table of bros pulled out, they lit up a doobie, and will probably return so to satisfy their midnight munchies.