Paperboy
The sandwich that took this place from a trailer to a two-storey brunch room is thick-cut bacon and pimento cheese under a sunny-side egg.1
Why go
It started as a trailer in a field and now holds a building on the same East 11th lot. Inside there is a countertop for the diner seat, a few tables, a breeze-block patio facing the street and a rooftop. This is the 1203 E 11th door, on the lot the trailer stood on.1 A real kitchen came with the walls. It shows in the plates that are not sandwiches. Pork and sweet potato hash comes finished with pecan mole, steak and eggs with chimichurri, cinnamon toast under whipped mascarpone and walnut streusel.1
Order this / avoid
- The B.E.C., the sandwich the business was built on.1
- The steak and eggs, where the chimichurri does the work of cutting a heavy plate.1
- Share the cinnamon toast. A few bites go a long way.1
- Avoid: the Texas hash if rich food does not suit you. Nicolai McCrary calls it very tasty and very heavy.1
What locals & experts say
- Nicolai McCrary rates it 8.2 for The Infatuation, and his line on the sandwich is that you have had one before, and
here, the bacon is thick-cut, the cheese is pimento, and the egg, sunny-side up.
His only complaint is the queue that so much good stuff draws.1 - Best Brunch in the Austin Chronicle's 2026 Best of Austin readers poll, which is the public-vote half of that award and not the critics' half. The finalists were Chez Zee, Ovenbird, Phoebe's Diner and Toasty Badger.2
Good to know
- Walk-ins: a limited number, at an hour or two of waiting.1
- Hygiene: Austin Public Health scored the kitchen 80 on 22 September 2025 and 80 on 7 April 2025, after 91, 81 and 88 back to June 2023. The city's failing line is 70.3
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Brunch. Insta from nixta. And readers choice award"
Verdict
should-visit — Reservations open on the first of the month on a rolling two-month basis, so a peak weekend table wants about sixty days of notice. If you did not plan that far ahead, the takeout window on the side of the building serves the whole menu and you eat it in the lot next door. The rooftop is the seat to ask for once the summer is over.