The Room
Olive & June occupies a converted Hyde Park bungalow on Glenview Avenue — Shawn Cirkiel (the chef-partner of Parkside, The Backspace and Bullfight) running the most-romantic Italian dining room in Austin. The room's two halves work in distinct registers: the interior dining rooms are warm, low-lit, traditional-Italian-trattoria; the courtyard, under century-old live oaks and string lights, is the seat that has earned the restaurant a national reputation as a proposal venue.
The Texas Monthly review listed Olive & June as one of the city's most-romantic dining rooms in 2018 and the listing has not been retired. Eater Austin's annual best-Italian list has held the room every year since 2013. The booking window is two weeks for the courtyard; the interior is more flexible.
The Food
The pasta programme is hand-rolled — the agnolotti, the orecchiette with rapini, the wood-fired tagliatelle. The wood-fired pizza programme runs four rotating pies; the Margherita is the test pie. The branzino salt-baked at the wood oven is the order for two; the wood-grilled lamb chop is the secondi-list standard. The chef's pasta tasting at $65 per person on Tuesdays through Thursdays is the order for a first visit.
Wine programme is Italian-classic with a serious Sicilian and Sardinian bench, with an honest by-the-glass programme. Cocktails are aperitivi-led: a working Negroni, a properly built Aperol spritz, a coffee Negroni for the dessert course. Service is informed and warm, in the Cirkiel-group register.
Best Occasion Fit
Proposal: The courtyard at Olive & June, on a clear evening, under the largest live oak, is one of Austin's most-photographed proposal venues. Notify the staff at booking; the ring will arrive at the dessert course on a small silver tray, the Champagne will be open, the night will run the way the diner asks it to.
First Date: The bar at the front of the bungalow is one of Hyde Park's most-reliable first-date seats. The pasta menu shares well, the Negroni programme is the natural opener, and the courtyard is the second move if the night extends.
Birthday: Birthdays at Olive & June are warm, pasta-led, courtyard-friendly affairs that the room handles with the practiced grace of a neighbourhood Italian dining room with twelve years of repeat customers. The corner courtyard table is the seat to request.