Joe's Bakery & Coffee Shop
Joe's Bakery dredges its thick-cut bacon in flour, chills it overnight and griddles it flat, and the James Beard Foundation called that strip
a masterful touchwhen it named the Avila family's diner on East 7th the 2023 America's Classic for Texas.12
Why go
Sophia and Florentino De La O opened La Oriental Grocery & Bakery at 2305 East 9th Street in 1935 and lived in the back of it, and their son Joe Avila, who had been Florentino's apprentice, bought the family's rebuilt bakery on East 7th in 1962 and put his own name over the door.7 In 1969 he and Paula borrowed US$30,000 and moved it two doors down into the old Lott Lumberyard at 2305 East 7th, and it has not moved since.137 Three generations of Avila women run it now: Paula, her daughters Rose Ann and Carolina, and her granddaughter Regina Estrada, who came in to manage the restaurant in 2003 and answers the regulars who ask after Joe with Well, we're Joe.
67 The kitchen makes its own flour tortillas and serves breakfast all day, so Raphael Brion found the weekend wait full of East Side regulars, UT kids, construction workers, city officials and families out of church.1 Brion scored it 8.6 for The Infatuation in May 2024 and called the migas classic, legendary, and genre-defining,
and MICHELIN put it on the recommended list of its first Texas guide that November.112
Order this / avoid
- The bacon, as a side to share or on a taco. The strips come off the griddle flat and keep their shape, which Brion credits to the flour dredge and the overnight chill, and he calls it
about as peak bacon as your life will get.
1 - A migas taco con todo, the migas taco with pico de gallo added, on a house-made flour tortilla. Brion's standard order is that, a bacon, egg and cheese taco, and a carne guisada taco.1
- Bacon, egg and cheese on flour is the taco Austin Monthly named when it ranked the breakfast tacos here fifth in the city in 2018.9
- Pork carne guisada, as a taco or as the plate with rice, beans, salad and two tortillas for US$15.25. Brion:
meat so tender that it rivals anything a fancy French restaurant is braising.
113 - The Joey Rocha breakfast, US$15.25, two eggs with carne guisada, potatoes, beans and bacon or sausage. Patricia Sharpe's Texas Monthly pick,
because after carne guisada, potatoes, beans, and bacon, you'll never be hungry again.
1311 - Carne asada, which is what Fermín Núñez orders.
It tastes like home.
3 - Barbacoa at breakfast, which Eater's 2026 capsule calls
wonderfully tender and juicy,
and at lunch a US$12 daily special with tea, Tuesday to Friday.5 - Pink cake and conchas from the glass cases by the entrance, as a starter while you wait or on the way out.1
- Avoid: Monday and holidays, when it is shut, and any plan that needs a fast table on a weekend morning.131
What locals & experts say
- Fermín Núñez, chef-owner of Suerte, Este and Bar Toti, in Tribeza's 2025 guide: his perfect day
starts by waking up and going to one of my favorite places ever, Joe's Bakery. That is one of my favorite places to go and have breakfast, and they have my favorite flour tortillas.
3 - Amanda Turner, chef de cuisine at Olamaie, in Tribeza's 2025 guide:
If it's truly a 'breakfast' kind of day, there is nothing better than Joe's Bakery for their handmade tortillas and super crispy bacon.
4 - The Infatuation Austin, Raphael Brion, 23 May 2024, 8.6:
The super-crispy bacon at Joe's defies the laws of pork belly physics.
1 - James Beard Foundation, America's Classics, February 2023, one of six in the country that year and the one for Texas:
it's the service and firm sense of community under the stewardship of three generations of Avila women, led by Joe's widow Paula, that keeps people coming back again and again.
2 - MICHELIN Guide Texas, 2024: on the recommended list in the guide's first Texas edition.12
- Eater Austin's 38 essential restaurants, summer 2026:
Very old-school,
with the barbacoa breakfast and the migas as the plates to come for.5 - Austin Monthly, Megan Kimble and Jolène M. Bouchon, March 2018, fifth of nineteen breakfast tacos in the city:
the breakfast tacos are perfectly packaged goodness.
9 - The Austin Chronicle, Rachel Feit, February 1999, on the migas, the lard in the beans and the barbacoa lunch:
Joe's brand of Mexican is the heart-stopping variety: meaty, greasy, spicy, and full of flavor.
10
Good to know
- Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, from early morning until early afternoon, and breakfast runs the whole time. Closed Monday and on holidays.131
- Walk in and wait. Weekend mornings fill; Brion says there is often a wait for a table.1
- Prices, from the site's menu in September 2026: huevos rancheros US$14.25, the Joey Rocha breakfast and the carne guisada plate US$15.25 each, the enchilada plate US$13.50. Eater prints the weekday lunch special at US$12 with tea. I have not read a price for the tacos or the pan dulce.135
- The room: a counter and booths with a jukebox playing Tejano, the bakery's glass cases by the entrance, and yellow booths that Austin Monthly says regulars sing along in.19
- Joe Avila's Korean War medals are in a showcase at the bakery, and he made the pies once a week into his retirement.8
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health scored the kitchen 97 on 8 July 2025, under facility 2800556 at 2305 E 7th St, after 96 in January 2025, 94 in February 2024 and 96 in July 2023, on a scale where 70 fails.14
Verdict
must-visit — Come for breakfast and order the bacon on a house flour tortilla, then a migas taco con todo and a carne guisada taco, which is how Raphael Brion orders it. It is closed Monday, and on a weekend morning you will wait for a table.