Cosmic Coffee is Serving Up Beverages Within Botanical Gardens
Cosmic's second location opens this week in East Austin with a gorgeous outdoor garden space
Walk into the grounds of Cosmic Coffee + Beer Garden and you’ll be immersed in natural beauty and tranquility. Over the last five years, the hospitality venue has had significant growth and transformation. Owner, Paul Oveisi, has a background in hospitality and a permaculture design certificate. In 2018, he decided to combine his two passions to create drink venues for people to enjoy, that also double as botanical gardens.
Officially opening on September 13, 2023 is a second Cosmic Coffee — Cosmic Saltillo — located at 1300 E. 4th Street. The new building is two-story and has a rooftop, so it will feature vertical gardens. The Cosmic Saltillo location features Cosmic Taqueria with food and drinks, has plenty of beautiful outdoor seating, is dog-friendly and is soon to be one of Austin’s favorite hangouts for fall.
(photo courtesy of Cosmic Saltillo)
Cosmic Saltillo (photo by Jane Yun)
(photo courtesy of Cosmic Saltillo)
Additionally, plans are already in the works for a third location that will be near a lake, with more water-centric garden elements. Each location will focus on very different natural beauties and enhancements.
Earlier this year, Tribeza writer Britni Rachal sat down with Cosmic Hospitality owner, Paul Oveisi to discuss permaculture at the South Austin venue, Cosmic Coffee and Beer Garden. Read on for details about the importance of integrating natural ecosystems into all of their beautiful projects.
With permaculture, everything has a purpose
What’s different about permaculture is that it is based off agricultural ecosystems that are intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. In Cosmic’s case, that means using natural systems that incorporate the rainwater into an irrigation system and following an onsite composting system, rather than sending waste to a landfill.
“Really everything has a purpose, even though the gardens are beautiful to look at and it’s good ambiance and décor. It really does have a lot of functionality,” says Oveisi. “We grow a lot of the produce that we use in our drinks, or items the food trucks use in their menu items.”
An onsite chicken coop generates eggs that the staff and some coffee shop regulars take home. The chickens’ bedding is also part of the composting process. Overall, Oveisi says the goal is to leave the space better than they found it. With humble beginnings as a rundown mechanic shop filled with mosquitos and roaches, prior to Cosmic Coffee + Beer leasing the land, it’s safe to say that goal is being met.
Birds are chirping, and everything from owls to songbirds and woodpeckers — along with an array of butterflies, dragonflies, honeybees and other healthy colorful insects — now populate the area. The smell of dozens of countless blooms with a strong presence of jasmine fill the air, often surprising both first-time visitors or guests who haven’t been to Cosmic in a couple of years.
“We are all about transformation and escapism. You walk up and you don’t know what to expect,” says Oveisi. “I love seeing first-time visitors, because they are like, ‘Oh, look at the roses.’ They walk in and see the water features and are like, ‘Whoa, what is this place?’ A lot of that is intentional. A lot of that is discovery moments.”
Three mini waterfalls, a large waterfall and a pond now occupy the area. The waterfalls were easier to construct because of the structure of the acre of land Cosmic sits on. According to Oveisi, Congress Avenue sits 10 feet above Cosmic’s lot because when crews built South Congress in the 1950s, they dug into the lot to use dirt from that location to build the streets. As a result, the entire area is sunken down, with a massive hillside between Cosmic and Congress. To hide the eroding hillside, waterfalls were built, using the existing gravity and elevation change.
Frogs, toads and lizards are attracted to the ponds, making the watery areas their home. Added tree landscaping also provides shaded areas. Due to composting, a natural bloom is also taking hold with plants resurfacing that were first planted years ago.
“We’ve created a biome in a very urban environment that helps kind of mitigate the negative impact that all businesses have on the environment,” says Oveisi. “Our goal is to not get preachy about it, though.
We try to kind of have it almost as the background. It’s there if you want to deep dive into all of these systems and what they do. But we don’t want to alienate people by being so in your face about it. I like the opportunity to be something for everybody and not be so serious about it.”
An extensive drink menu is an extra draw to an already beautiful space. Non-alcoholic mocktails, boozy drinks and coffee dominate the menu with a focus on seasonality, based on natural herbs available from Cosmic’s garden.
Coffee is strategically sourced from Proud Mary Coffee USA, as Cosmic aimed to have a very specific flavor profile, with hints of chocolate, fudge, caramel and dates for their household blend, and the coffee partners nailed it.
Having fun is key, as is getting the staff fully on board with the concept. No matter what position they are ultimately hired for, each team member first does some time as groundskeeper to fully learn the ins and outs of the upkeep of the habitat.
“If you buy into it, great. You’ll fit right in here, and most people do,” says Oveisi. “It was a challenge at first because it’s something that hasn’t been done. People would question, ‘Paul, is this a bar or is it a botanical garden or is it a nursery? What are you doing?’ It was a little rough at first, but we kind of stuck to our guns, and here we are. It’s been five-plus years.”
Linda Lehmusvirta, the producer of Central Texas Gardener on KLRU-TV, is a fan of Cosmic’s unique concept. She’s featured hundreds of gardens and botanical areas and believes Cosmic’s concept is helping to enforce another concept of the “habitat highway” — a campaign designed to get people to look at their gardens and yards as fully connected across North America. Everything from plants on a balcony in Austin, to a full yard of beauty in Dallas, all the way to Iowa, and then Canada.
“A lot of people visit Cosmic and it’s their outdoor office. They can be sitting there on their computer next to a waterfall. They may not be consciously thinking about horticulture or land regeneration, but it’s still going to sink into their ambience soul,” says Lehumusvirta. “Then you get ideas with these container plants here and there and you say, ‘Oh, I can do that. I can create this little thing that’s got a butterfly in it.’”
Lehmusvirta encourages anyone who is on the cusp of trying gardening, to dive right in because we can all make a difference.
Even with its new and innovative environmental ways, there is a nod to “old Austin” in Cosmic’s brand. The name is inspired by what Oveisi, who is also a native Austinite, describes as a Cosmic Cowboy culture once prevalent in Central Texas.
“Live music was a big part of my life,” says Oveisi. “My wife, Suzanna Choffel, is a touring musician. My
business partner used to manage artists. We’ve also spent a lot of time in West Texas. The skies out in Marfa or the McDonald observatory in Fort Davis are a big inspiration for us.”
Stay up to date with the latest from Cosmic Hospitality Group at www.cosmichospitalitygroup.com.
*This article was originally written for Tribeza magazine by Britni Rachal and now includes additional updates about new venue by the Tribeza digital team.