Austin Coffee Shop and Bar Cosmic Opens New East Austin Spot With Tacos and a Rooftop Deck

Popular sprawling South Austin cafe and bar Cosmic Coffee & Beer Garden opened its long-in-the-works second location in East Austin over the weekend. The new cafe/bar, dubbed Cosmic Saltillo, opened at 1300 East Fourth Street in the East Cesar Chavez neighborhood on Friday, September 8.

For the first time, this Cosmic includes a new restaurant, Cosmic Tacos, serving, well, tacos all day long. There are items such as the Chickaroni (fried chicken, cotija cheese, green sauce), grilled fish, brisket, vegetarian chorizo, guajillo chicken, and al pastor. There are also bunch of breakfast tacos spanning brisket/sunny-side eggs, chilaquiles, to bacon/avocado/egg/bean/cheese; plus general choose-your-own fillings ones. Tacos can be turned into tortas and green bowls. Sides include corn, salsa, and queso fries. The restaurants’ dedicated drinks menu includes aguas frescas, which can be spiked with tequila or vodka, as well as micheladas.

Cosmic Saltillo’s coffee and bar menus remain basically the same. There are espresso-based drinks like lattes and cortados, as well as its house cold brew and boozy caffeinated drinks like carajillos, Irish coffees, and espresso martinis. Then there are draft beers from Austin breweries and cocktails (including low-ABV options). Most drinks are available for takeout. Scope out the full menus below.

Jane Yun

The physical space took over what had been the Texaco Depot with two buildings. The tower was revamped to lead onto a rooftop deck. And, much like the original location, the second Cosmic makes use of sustainable and environmentally friendly aspects and practices, such as gardens, a pond, and composting.

This new Cosmic falls under the Cosmic Hospitality Group, which includes co-partners Paul Oveisi, Patrick Dean, Jason Stevens and John Butts. Oveisi and Dean opened the original Cosmic in 2017 in the Dawson neighborhood off South Congress Avenue, taking over what had intended to be an additional Buzz Mill space. The beer garden became home to several food trucks, including the lauded new-school barbecue truck LeRoy & Lewis. They announced they were expanding into East Austin in the summer of 2020.

For Cosmic Saltillo, the group teamed up with real estate company Endeavor Properties, architect Clayton Korte, landscape architecture firm Ten Eyck Landscape, landscape company Spencer Landscaping, commercial real estate agency Space Squared, and general contracting company Solutions General Contractor.

Cosmic Saltillo opened with limited hours from Friday, September 8 through Sunday, September 10. Its regular hours start on Wednesday, September 13, which will be from 8 a.m. to midnight every day.

Jane Yun