Cosmic Saltillo

Built in the early 1900s to hold petroleum products delivered by railcar, these two front-gabled warehouses sat abandoned in one of East Austin's most developed corners. They are a rare remnant of the area's industrial past — full of history and a century of graffiti.

Both shells were painstakingly preserved down to the paint, keeping their corrugated steel siding, wood-framed windows and metal roofing. The concrete slabs were jackhammered out and reused as massive asymmetrical pavers at the entry. Three towering elms and a set of crumbling brick walls were kept to shape vine-shrouded seating away from the main courtyard.

The west building holds a coffee and spirit bar; the east, a taqueria. Between them sits the garden — a covered deck, an open patio and a koi pond, with an acre of broken asphalt restored into certified wildlife habitat, rainwater catchment, ecological ponds and a kitchen garden that drives the seasonal cocktail list.