This Sprawling House Just Became A Cool Restaurant
The food at Mattie's at Green Pastures in Austin, Texas is Southern fare with modern twists on classic cocktails. It's more than delicious enough to get you in the door-and once you spend time inside the Victorian farmhouse where the food is served, you'll never want to leave.
Or, at least that's how I felt after a visit to the recently reopened south Austin landmark earlier this year. The food at Mattie's was incredible, no question, but this is House Beautiful and I'm here to geek out over the space in which I ate it. It's worth a closer look.
The Green Pastures property is huge, with low-hanging oak trees surrounding the circa-1893 farmhouse. Peacocks wander about, bistro lights are strung over an outdoor patio, and a huge wrap-around porch makes guests feel right at home.
The property has stayed with the same family since the 1940s, and has played the role of a restaurant, wedding venue, and event space over the generations. It recently underwent a 13-month renovation, reopening with the name "Mattie's" for the home's original owner, Martha "Mattie" Miner Faulk.
The restaurant is a brilliant blend of styles, seamlessly mixing mid-century modern and 19th-century farmhouse. The result is a welcoming, fresh space with blush pink curtains and a deep leather chesterfield sofa.
"The building was, at one time, a farmhouse, then became a hotspot for Austin society, so we wanted to honor both," says Joel Mozersky, the interior designer who worked on the renovations. "Make it glamorous, yet humble; agrarian, yet sophisticated. Most importantly, we wanted guests to feel welcome." Inside, the restaurant retains the feel of a house, with distinct rooms both downstairs and up.
Joel says that as an ode to Victorian style, he wanted each room to have a unique identity and accompanying style and color palette. From the bright aqua and marble-accented bar downstairs to the moody navy and wood-heavy upstairs dining room, there's "tradition with the punctuation of color for each room."
Joel says the team also wanted the space to feel eclectic and collected, so a lot of the accent seating is antique, and artwork is from local artisans and various antique stores.
Other spots that got a fresh makeover? Joel says it was basically everything: They added two bars to the space, opened up a wall upstairs, and refinished the flooring. But they worked hard to preserve the existing wood details and the home's spirit overall, something Joel knew would be important to a community who had been coming to Green Pastures for decades.
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