Our Story

Maudie’s Cafe had a couple of generations of history and featured home-style cooking by the time Joe first met Maudie Hamilton Wilson. Maudie served home cooking to the Austin politicos, families, neighborhoods, and O’Henry students. Started in 1954, Maudie’s Cafe was 810 sq ft of yum – serving biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, and cold beers.

Maudie planned to close down her restaurant as she had become homebound, but as fate would have it, Joe Draker walked into Maudie’s life looking to rent the house next door and walked out with a handshake deal to buy the cafe.

Turning from homestyle to Tex-Mex in 1993 with the instrumental guidance from Roe and Pete Hernandez along with their brother, Jorge Arredondo, Joe, crew, and the customers have turned Maudie’s Tex-Mex into an Austin Icon, a Tex-Mex family staple serving multiple generations.