Day Maker Is The New Diner Concept From Jack Allen’s Kitchen, And It’s Awesome

By Kelsey Kennedy | January 9, 2025

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I absolutely LOVE a diner (like Phoebe's, Kerbey Lane, and 24 Diner), in no small part due to Gilmore Girls' influence on my upbringing. Hello Luke's diner!

But also because a big plate of chilaquiles and a hot cup of coffee on a random Tuesday morning? Yes please. Day Maker Half Day Café just opened in Austin, and I'm obsessed.

About me: I’m Kelsey, a bestselling travel book author and the creator of 3 Texas travel websites. As a native Texan, I spend my own time and money exploring this state to help millions of readers find the best food, things to do, places to stay in Austin and beyond. Check out my other sites: TheSanAntonioThings.com and TheWacoThings.com!

All About Day Maker

Day Maker Half Day Café opened in November 2024 near Zilker Park. It's a breakfast and lunch diner from the team behind Jack Allen's Kitchen and Salt Traders Coastal Cooking.

They renovated an old IHOP building near Zilker Park and turned it into this cool retro space with a coffee shop in front, gold and pink accents, an awesome bar, and plenty of booths and tabletops.

Also see: Hot new Restaurants In Austin

The food is amazing. Although this restaurant used to house an IHOP, the food is nothing like what you'd get at a national chain restaurant!

Day Maker serves breakfast and lunch favorites like benedicts, burgers, salads, Tex-Mex favorites, and classic sides like biscuits and bacon.

Since this is from the Jack Allen's team, which specializes in Texas fare and Tex-Mex classics, and the Salt Traders team, which has Texas coastal cuisine, I wasn't surprised at all to see the Day Maker's menu leans heavily on the Tex-Mex fare. You can order chilaquiles, migas, and huevos rancheros tacos here.

They also have a coffee bar at the front entry. Even if you're not dining in, you can swing by for a hot coffee beverage to take with you to-go on your drive up Mopac.

Here's What I Ordered My First Time In

I'm not exaggerating when I say that there were at least 8 menu items I wanted to try right away. The couple sitting next to me said the same thing - the woman saw my plate arrived and asked what it was, then leaned over and said, "don't you just want to try one of everything?"

I started with a hot cup of coffee, which is served in one of those satisfying vintage diner mugs. It was respectable coffee. Not up to par with the coffee at Fleet or Merit, but pretty darn good.

And then I got a homemade biscuit with butter and jam, because I was starving and clearly couldn't wait for my main dish to arrive. It was smaller than I expected, but that's not really a bad thing. Sometimes restaurant biscuits are SO giant that half of it gets wasted, and this was the perfect size for me to eat the entire thing. It was buttery and fluffy and delicious.

My entrée choice was the Huevos Rancheros, which is a crispy tostada served with refried black beans, avocado, arbol ranchero sauce, sunny up eggs, and Mexican crema. It's typically one of my favorite brunch dishes, and Day Maker made a great one.

(Other dishes I almost ordered and will get on upcoming visits: the churro pancakes with horchata butter and cajeta drizzle, the rise & shine sammy, or the breakfast étouffée with shrimp and sausage. Oh, and the State Fair waffle sounded like my Texas childhood, so I wanted that too.)

An A+ Hospitality Thing That Happened

I've noticed that, since the COVID-19 Pandemic, the biggest drop in restaurant quality has been in hospitality. I get it! It's hard to hire people in the service industry these days.

But one area where Day Maker really shines (in addition to amazing food and a fun environment) is in their hospitality. My server was so great! Clearly just really, really good at her job, very chill and fun, and the perfect amount of attentiveness in refilling coffees, checking in, etc.

But one weird thing happened... I got my beautiful plate of huevos rancheros, took a big delicious bite, and...it was just a bit too cold. Not "COLD, cold" by any means, but it definitely wasn't was hot, steamy breakfast dish I was craving. The crispy tostada and refried black beans just seemed a few degrees too cold, like they hadn't been put under a warmer before making their way to my table.

I kept eating anyway, not really wanting to make a fuss. Until someone who was higher up (a manger-type position, I'm assuming) who was making rounds in the restaurant, stopped by to make sure everything was great at my table. I said yep, but he somehow sensed that I wasn't telling the truth and said, "are you sure? Anything you need to tell me about your meal? I want to make it right."

I told him the dish seemed a bit too cold, and he whisked the plate away and brought back a piping hot plate of huevos rancheros a few minutes later. My server was very much on team customer satisfaction and said, "YES girl, you 100% should get your hot plate! I've never seen a cold dish here, but you deserve a hot one and did the right thing." She also comped my coffee and biscuit as a way of making it up to me.

I mean, it's a small thing. I would have gladly eaten the warm-but-not-hot plate of huevos rancheros, and there are plenty of restaurants that wouldn't have made me a new plate quite so kindly. But it was just a small thing that Day Maker did that I'll always remember!

WEBSITE | 1101 S MoPac Expy, Austin, TX 78746