kerbey lane cafe

Having been in Austin for 33 freakin’ years now (yikes!), few restaurants have been a constant in our lives, but Kerbey Lane Cafe is one of them. Kerbey was a critical cool-down for my late-night party crowd in my youth because it was open 24/7. I spent many post-show hours with friends (and bandmates) eatin’ cakes and regaling each other with the night’s adventures. When I started my Kerbey habit, there was only one: the O.G. on Kerbey Lane. I even saw the death of (one) Austin in the original Kerbeys in ’99 while waiting for a table at 2:30 a.m. with about 50 other people. A dot-commer, after hearing how long the wait was, handed the hostess a hundred-dollar bill. She sat them immediately.

Kerby started to seem tired and dingy, and the wait (oh, there were epic waits) was not worthwhile. However, at some point, Kerbey began elevating the menu and expanding the number of restaurants. A Kerbey Lane opened up near my office in San Marcos, at Spring Lake Dam on the San Marcos River. It replaced a rather pedestrian steakhouse, and I was excited because I do love me some breakfast all damn day. And I was pleasantly surprised at how dang good it is now. The classic pancake recipe is still there (a relic of The Great Pancake Wars) but also freshened-up standbys.

BBQ in Central Texas is a mafia with just a few families involved. It turns out pancakes in Central Texas have a mafia as well. Patricia Ayer developed the Omelettry’s pancake recipe in the 1970s and then, with her husband Kent Cole, opened up and ran Omelettry West on Lake Austin Boulevard in 1979. Patricia then ran off with Omelettry West’s line cook to open Kirbey Lane Cafe in 1980. Later, in 1987, Kent bought out Omelettry’s interest in Omelettry West and renamed it Magnolia Cafe. Patricia’s son (via the line cook) now heads the company. And there you have it: three restaurants and one pancake recipe!

Foodwise, Kerbey slings bright and cheery American Diner fare with nods toward the vegans and veg-heads in our midst. Presentation and dishes have been chef’d up, but not so much that it doesn’t feel like Kerbey Lane anymore. I’ve tried a variety of menu items, and they have all been great (and greeted with ooos and aaahs by tablemates). Even better, the line cooks in San Marcos rock out to old goth music.

I like my pancakes plain, and Kirbey’s buttermilk cakes are the best in town. And they are enormous, so be careful how big your stack is. There are specialty cakes as well, if that’s your thing. I’ve also discovered that I really enjoy their fake eggs and fake chorizo breakfast tacos (they taste like the real thing!). You know how much I love breakfast, so that’s what I order most times since it’s offered 24/7, but I’ve ventured off the beaten egg path a few times with fish tacos, a southwestern salad, chicken and mac-n-cheese, and tortilla soup.

Old Austin is gone, and so is ye olde Kerbey’s, but in many ways (especially food-wise), Austin is better (and so is Kirbey’s!)

Kerbey Lane Cafe; various locations in Austin, San Marcos, and San Antonio