Leona Botanical Cafe & Bar offers patio-garden hangout

December 15, 2025

Since last year, my social media feeds have been buzzing about an intriguing new restaurant concept in South Austin — Leona Botanical Cafe & Bar. A “botanical garden” with food and drinks? I’m in!

So is all of Austin, it seems. Leona opened in mid-November and has been absolutely popping ever since. I visited with friends at an off hour — Wednesday at 10:30 am — and got one of the last open parking spots. If you go at a popular time of day, you should rideshare. I’m surprised the lot isn’t encircled by Waymos dropping off and picking up.

Huge patio garden under the trees

But once I stepped through the moon-gate entrance, the vibe was relaxed, spacious, and chill. An enormous patio laid out around a central stream and clusters of mature trees, accented with native plants in generous planting beds, fills about half of the 5-acre site.

Casual high-end seating (Fermob Sixties, Hay Palissade, and other brands) offers comfortable conversation areas as well as cafe-style tables and chairs.

Campbell Landscape Architecture designed the outdoor spaces, and they’re lovely, especially the stream garden. Limestone boulders edge the water on its meandering route through the garden. My friends and I exclaimed over the natural-looking streambed, paved with large, flat pieces of limestone like you’d see in any wild Texas creek.

In an Instagram post, Campbell wrote that the stream “uses salvaged stone from the site and is supplied by collected rainwater stored in a cistern.”

‘White Cloud’ Gulf muhly makes a gauzy scrim screening the parking lot.

I noticed a plaque dedicating Leona’s nature habitat in honor of Betty Grubbs. Who was Betty Grubbs, I wondered? Turns out she was the previous owner of the property, as well as a World War II veteran and philanthropist of women’s causes. “The LEONA team is honored to carry Betty’s legacy forward by supporting women-owned businesses, with DEE DEE and Veracruz [eateries] at the forefront, and plans to hold an annual fundraiser for UT’s Betty Grubbs Endowed Scholarship Program,” the website explains.

Covered patios

Architecture firm Clayton Korte designed the structures at Leona — the main cafe/bar, an open-air pavilion, and three walk-up eateries — to emphasize a connection with nature. Deep overhangs on porches provide sun protection, and an airy structure of steel and wood supports expanses of glass.

A big galvanized cistern at the back — storing collected rainwater for the stream, I assume — points the way to the restrooms.

Salvia and yucca

To protect the garden beds, slim chains and posts attempt to keep customers on the paths. I hope it works — and I hope Leona is dedicating resources to maintaining the garden for years to come. So often landscaping looks great at installation but soon declines due to neglect or poor maintenance practices. I’d love to know more about the garden maintenance here, actually. Is Campbell still involved? Who’s keeping it looking so good? How often do they work on it? Inquiring minds want to know.

Playground

Behind the restrooms, a trail leads to a large wooden play structure for kids. A fenced-off meadow is back there too. I’ll be curious to see how that evolves.

Gaura in bloom in mid-December. I’m glad I got to see the garden before our first freeze.

Fire pit

We sat by a stone fire pit for a while, enjoying the sunshine and working up an appetite.

Friends Lori Daul, who organized the outing…

…and Jennie Ostertag, both local designers and experienced gardeners themselves.

View to the cafe

Cafe and bar

We ordered tacos at Veracruz All Natural‘s walk-up window and, while we waited, popped into the cafe for drinks.

The indoor scene

Cheery amaryllis pots

Veracruz tacos

Tacos and a quesadilla from Veracruz were delicious and quickly devoured.

I hope to visit Leona again soon, but it’ll be post-freeze since we just had our first one last night.

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