Kerbey Lane. Magnolia Cafe. 24 Diner. Years ago, people could rely on these Austin staples for hot coffee, a heaping plate of breakfast and conversation at almost any hour of the day.
That's not the case anymore. These restaurants and others have reduced their hours, part of a nationwide trend accelerated by the pandemic and inflation. According to data from Yelp, the number of 24-hour restaurants in Austin has dropped 38% from February 2020 to December 2024.
Bennu Coffee is one of the handful remaining — offering a peek into this increasingly rare slice of city culture. A team of KUT reporters spent 24 hours straight at the coffeehouse’s South Congress location for the 24 Hours in Austin podcast, trading shifts and talking to Austinites about their jobs, their families and their dreams. We learned about professional clowning and jam roller skating. We heard conspiracy theories and love stories.
Here are some vignettes pulled from hours of conversations, which took place back in May.
An 'angel' makes bracelets
Mati Reed is sitting at a table, methodically looping beads onto a string. He’s got one of those plastic organizer boxes, holding beads stamped with letters and hearts.
“I go to music festivals and dress up like a golden angel,” he says. “Go around, tap people on the shoulders, go shhhh. I give them a bracelet that says, ‘You are loved.’ Give them a hug. And I dance off.”
Years ago, at one of Mati’s first festivals, someone did the same thing to him — “and in that particular moment, I needed a hug,” he says.
Now he passes that experience on to other people, handing bracelets out at events like South by Southwest and Austin City Limits. His next festival is in a few days — he’s planning to make 40 bracelets.
“I can always rely on Bennu … to come in here and kind of just relax, read a book. Do this,” he says, referring to the bracelets.
He talks about one festival where he saw a man sitting down, looking overwhelmed.
“He looked like he could, I don't know, use a hand. So I go over and I sit down, and kind of practice the ministry of presence,” Mati says. “We scooched in a little closer. And he just kind of rested his head.”
They sat there for less than five minutes, and Mati never got the man’s name — but by the end, “the energy completely changed,” he says.
“Just being there, sitting down in the moment with someone, can really change the entire world.”
A barista dreams of a big top circus
Bobby Barnaby works as a barista at Bennu, but his degree is in clowning.
He just fell into it, he explains in between taking customers’ orders. He started as a professional dancer, then worked with a clown troupe for shows, and then decided to go to clown college. His clown character is called Lucky Strike.
What’s so appealing about it? “The clown is freedom,” Bobby says. It gives people permission to express themselves and let go of the fear of breaking societal norms.
“To be a good clown, all you have to be is a mirror. All I have to do is hold up a mirror and show you everything that you want to be, but feel like you can't because of … something that somebody told you you can't do once when you were six years old,” he says.
Bobby has always dreamed of owning a circus — and he’s working to make that dream come true in Austin. He just bought a farm about 45 minutes out from the city. His vision is to host festivals and tea parties. He pictures a big top, a petting zoo, flowers, photographers.
“Can you imagine just a beautiful tea party ending in a beautiful food fight in a giant circus tent, surrounded by animals and wildflowers?” he says. “How picturesque.”
A tattoo artist looks for happiness
It’s around 2 a.m., and there’s only a handful of people at Bennu — all huddled in different corners of the shop. Santos Briseño is at a table, sketching on a napkin. He’s drawn a skull with the word “lust” on its brow.
Santos is a tattoo artist; he’s got quite a few of his own. He says his favorite kind of work to do is cover-ups.
“I like to take somebody's mistake and make it into something beautiful,” he says. “I try to fix mistakes. I can't fix my own, but I can help people with theirs.”
He says he has lived a hard life. His parents died a few years ago, and he just got out of prison. He’s living on the street.
“I come here because it's 24 hours, and they don't judge,” he says. “Whenever I got money, I buy coffee.”
He says he doesn’t really know what happiness is, but it’s hard to find in Austin.
“I'm here on the street with people I don't know,” he says. “I'm like that nobody that asks for change, or that you bumped into at the grocery store. I'm that nobody everywhere.”
Exes talk about dating and friendship
Clyde and Journey are browsing apartment listings on a laptop. Journey is trying to find a new place to live. Clyde is “trying to make sure that [Journey] doesn't get f----- over." The pair shared only their first names.
If you ask them how they met, they’ll both laugh. They’re best friends — but found each other on Tinder. They were even engaged, but broke up because they were too young to settle down, Journey says. They’re both in their 20s.
“I also saw that we were both getting into a routine that I didn't like,” Journey says. “We have so much more to offer than just getting off of work, making dinner, watching TV, shower, go to sleep.”
It wasn’t always easy to go from fiancés to friends, but this kind of relationship comes with its own perks. “[Journey is] able to see a more vulnerable side than any of my other friends,” Clyde says.
“People have been like, ‘That's amazing that you're friends with your ex. I could never.’ And it's like, I love this person so much. I can't see my life without them,” Journey says. “Nothing has to be so black and white.”
Now, Clyde is seeing someone else. Journey’s still looking — he hung out with a date at Bennu a couple nights ago. It wasn’t a match, but he says he’s “pro- dating at the coffee shop.”
“I come here all the time,” he says. “Sometimes I'll come here before the club, just to get some caffeine. I'll come here in the middle of the night if I'm awake. I love this place.”
Stephanie Federico, Becky Fogel, Kailey Hunt, Matt Largey and Audrey McGlinchy contributed to this story.
These interviews are included in the latest episode of 24 Hours in Austin, a podcast that looks at what a day in the life of Austin sounds like. Listen in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
