A French-inspired café is set to open its doors at the Blanton Museum of Art on Nov. 20, bringing steak au poivre, mussels with fries and a sprawling outdoor patio to the University of Texas at Austin campus. Café Fleurs de Nuit comes from the team behind Justine's Brasserie, and its menu reads like a love letter to Parisian café culture, from quiche lorraine to a vanilla and brown butter gelato sundae.
The café is scheduled to open on Nov. 20, according to the Austin American-Statesman, landing at the Blanton Museum of Art on the UT Austin campus. It's owned by Pierre Pelegrin and Justine Gilcrease, the pair also behind Justine's Brasserie, the Statesman reports. The café's name, Café Fleurs de Nuit, translates to “night-blooming flowers,” according to Austin Monthly.
The café will serve breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, per the Statesman's reporting.
A Menu Built on French Classics
Later in the day, the menu features French classics.
Tribeza's reporting adds a peppery steak au poivre, a buttery loup de mer meunière and a silky beef carpaccio to the menu. To drink, Tribeza reports the café is pouring a French-leaning wine list alongside a coffee program from Austin's Figure 8 Coffee Purveyors.
Design Pulled From Paris and Artist Hangouts
The café takes its inspiration from Parisian cafés, and Tribeza describes the look as drawing on French modernism, classic brasseries and artist hangouts like La Colombe d'Or. That aesthetic carries outside, where the café offers seating both indoors and on an expansive outdoor patio, according to the Statesman's report. The patio overlooks the Blanton's grounds, the museum's Ellsworth Kelly's Austin installation and the Texas State Capitol.
The patio features Snøhetta's “Petals” and a botanical setting, pairing art-world scenery with a menu built for lingering over coffee or a glass of wine.
A Timeline That Shifted
The café's path to opening wasn't exactly quick. The Austin Chronicle previously reported the café was set to launch in spring 2025, with plans at the time calling for breakfast and lunch during museum hours and dinner served on Saturdays. That earlier version of the plan also described a shaded outdoor deck for al fresco dining with views of the Capitol and Ellsworth Kelly's Austin. With the Nov. 20 date now set, Austin diners won't have to wait much longer to see how the finished café compares to those original plans.
