Texas French Bread

Texas French Bread has been around since 1981, and at one point they operated numerous satellite bakery locations in Austin.  In 2007 they decided just to focus on the flagship location at 29th Street as a bakery but also more as a dinner bistro.  A new outdoor dining terrace was designed by Ten Eyck Landscape Architects and opened sometime in 2014.  The project was installed by 22 Construction.

The site is about 30 feet wide by 100 feet long (the size of a narrow residential house lot), with the short edge entry on Rio Grande Street.  The grading steps down from the sidewalk at Rio Grande, so the design terraces down overall on the east to west axis.  A set of stairs with metal risers and pea gravel treads leads you into the site from Rio Grande.  Rosemary is planted close on one side of the steps, and you can smell its fragrance as you brush against it.  The west end of the site ends with an ashlar pattern limestone block  wall that's about five feet tall with a row of Possumhaw Holly trees (Ilex decidua) in front of it.

View into Garden from Rio Grande

Steel Riser Steps with Pea Gravel Treads Next to Rosemary

Limestone Wall and Possumhaw Holly (Ilex decidua)

On the north side of the site there's a three foot board-formed concrete wall that separates the dining area from the adjacent residential property.  A small, weathered steel gate with woven wire mesh gives access through the gate out to the base of the heritage live oak that is shared with the residential property.  The long south face of the garden abuts the parking lot for Texas French Bread.  A series of rain gardens step down with the grade and form a buffer between the terrace and the parking.  They have small steel check dams and are planted with native grasses and small fruit trees.  The trees looked like plum to me, but I thought the contractor said they were pear trees.   Regardless, he did also say they were afflicted with fire blight and likely to be replaced.

Board-formed Concrete Wall

Pedestrian Gate with McNichols Woven Wire Mesh

Rain Gardens with Grasses and Fruit Trees

A steel pedestrian bridge leads you into the garden from the parking area, passing over the rain gardens.  A board-formed concrete water trough welcomes you into the garden with bubbling water and blossoms of water lilies.  The overflow for the water feature is, incidentally directed towards the rain gardens.  Gaps in the raised concrete curb that edge the decomposed granite paving of the terrace also allow water to sheet flow from this area into the rain garden.  This attention to the path of water is one of the signature elements of Ten Eyck's landscapes.

Steel Grating Pedestrian Bridge

Bubbling Water Trough

Water Lilies

Drainage Gaps to Rain Garden

The entry path from the parking lot bisects the garden in two, with the left side being a custom picnic table dining area and the right side anchored by a large pergola.  The weathered steel pergola provides a permable roof for the raised bar and bistro table dining area.  The steel tube posts for the pergola are about 8 inches in diameter, so they look pretty big when you see them up close, but from a distance they seem a good proportion.  McNichols woven wire mesh covers the top of the pergola and filters the sunlight coming through.  This material also matches that of the small pedestrian gate.  I spoke with the contractor on-site, and they described that aligning and spot welding each wire connecting point on these panels was labor intensive but looked good in the end.  String lights hang underneath for evening illumination.  These lights run the full length of the garden, connecting to eye hooks on weathered steel posts on the far end.  Deep purple Evergreen Wisteria vines (Millettia reticulata) are trained up wires that have a bottom eye bolt connection on the pergola posts and are somehow secured up a the top of the pergola as well in some fashion that I couldn't quite see.

Picnic Table Dining Area

Custom Steel Tube and Wood Tables

Pergola Dining Area

Weathered Steel Pergola with Woven Wire Mesh and Vines

String Light Connection on Pergola

String Light Connection to Post

Training Wire for Vines

Evergreen Wisteria (Millettia reticulata)

Overall, the terrace garden seemed like it would be a very pleasant place to dine at night, and even to eat lunch during the day with all the shade that is provided.  The vertical planting and structures help to create the feel of outdoor rooms so you're in a volume of space and not just a flat plane.  The dining area is pretty close to the adjacent residence, and I'm not sure how noisy it might get for the people who live there.  I'll have to go back and check out their bistro menu sometime soon.