New Casual Mediterranean Cafe Brings More Falafel to Downtown Austin

The latest downtown Austin restaurant is The Mockingbird, the casual Mediterranean cafe within the Austin Proper building on 600 West Second Street. The new McGuire Moorman Hospitality (MMH) restaurant is now open as of last week on Friday, February 14.

The counter-service restaurant features breakfast and lunch for now (with dinner to come later). This means parfait mixed with pistachio and apricots, a plate with soft-scramble eggs and falafel, and shakshuka.

For the rest of the day, there are wraps, sandwiches, and bowls with choose-your-own mains ranging from lamb shawarma to marinated vegetables to falafel. Then there’s rotisserie chicken (which is now becoming an MMH trademark item, already available at Swedish Hill and Lou’s). Everything is available for dining in or to-go.

Sweets-wise, there’s frozen Greek yogurt with toppings like chopped baklava, sour cherries, and kataifi crumbles. Then there are pastries, including babka, blood orange olive oil cake, and bougatsa (phyllo dough that is stuffed with cream). Then there’s beer and wine, as well as coffee, juices, and smoothies.

Currently, Mockingbird’s daytime hours are from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily.

Nearby Mediterranean places include Mediterranean truck Austin’s Habibi, and a whole bunch of places along Congress Avenue: TLV (the Israeli stand in food hall Fareground), Kebabalicious (the Turkish wrap truck), and Cava (customizable bowl chain).

Mockingbird is the Austin Proper’s third eating-and-drinking establishment to open so far. That includes Mediterranean restaurant The Peacock and only-open-to-hotel-guests cocktail bar Goldie’s. The last restaurant to open is the poolside Mexican restaurant La Piscina, aiming to debut in the spring.

Also up next for MMH: an Italian restaurant and pizzeria on West Fifth (opening sometime in the fall), and a casual Japanese restaurant on South Congress (projected to open in March).

Jackie Klusmeyer

• The Mockingbird [Austin Proper]
• The Mockingbird [Instagram]
• Downtown Hotel Austin Proper Reveals Its Four New Restaurants and Bars [EATX]
• All Coverage of Austin Proper [EATX]
• All Coverage of McGuire Moorman Hospitality [EATX]