The energy feels more like an elementary school art class than a wine bar at Community Garden on Wednesday nights.
"It's like this place in the neighborhood you can just walk to to relax and decompress," Maria Vargas said as she was starting on a watercolor, "just work on whatever projects and have good conversations."
These "doodle nights," soundtracked by local DJs, are a weekly staple at the venue in the Chestnut neighborhood of East Austin.
At first, staff put butcher paper and a bunch of markers on the tables, said Corbin Cary, a frequent doodle night DJ who runs the record shop inside Community Garden.
Within a few weeks, he said, "there were people bringing typewriters and all sorts of different artistic activities."
The crowd ranges from couples on first dates to friends catching up to regulars like Francesca Jaimes.
"I live like two houses down from here, so I've been coming here for a while now," she said. "I would come here and draw 'cause there was nothing really else to do."
Community Garden operates as a coffee shop, wine bar and performance venue. Owner James Harcrow prides himself on the multifaceted reputation.
"It was always important to me to have Community Garden be a home for a lot of different people that are into a lot of different types of music or events," he said.
Before the spot opened, Harcrow had never been involved in hospitality. Music, however, was a constant.
In 2015, he launched a record label called Growth in Decay that focuses on underground electronic music from Texas. That introduced him to new local music and expanded his network of fellow artists.
When the pandemic halted live events, Harcrow made an unexpected pivot to keep in touch with his growing community.
He started making acai bowls for his friends, including the owners of the Coconut Club, Brian Almarez and Cole Evans. When staff at the downtown nightclub began to discuss reopening, they asked Harcrow to cater the meetings.
After a few months, Almarez and Evans came to him with a proposition: a cafe that served his bowls.
The potential space was an opportunity for Harcrow to create an environment made for connection, especially connection through music.
"It was going to be a place that we could do record release parties and art shows and be a hub for the city for interesting things that are going on," he said.
Community Garden opened its doors on Cedar Avenue in spring 2023, offering acai bowls and coffee during the day, wine at night, and music from open to close.
Harcrow started cultivating a list of DJs and live performers on Day 1. He first booked the people who surrounded him. They connected him to more people, and then other musicians started introducing themselves. The music being played began to vary.
"Things really started growing in a very unique way," he said.
Within the first few weeks, Harcrow’s friend suggested doodle nights.
" He had suggested that it would be really neat to do some type of doodle night. People would show up and would just draw and hang out,” Harcrow said. "So we gave it a try.”
Jaimes was part of a small group that started coming early on.
"Some usuals would be here, and we would draw and we started making games out of it," she said. "I tried to come as often as possible."
Over time, word spread and almost three years later, the event has become a Wednesday night tradition.
Cary said a lot of people come to have an "outside space" to create art.
"And there's good music," he added.
Doodle nights and "listening room" sessions on Tuesdays were intended to draw bigger crowds on slow nights and to showcase the diversity of music played at Community Garden.
"We are so good at being a canvas for any type of person [who] wants to come here and express themselves," DJ Marshal Spaulding said.
And, as the venue has grown as a host for artists, the business itself has grown, too — much to Harcrow’s surprise.
"At the core of opening this place," he said, "was my love for all the people that were around me and wanting to create an environment that would foster a bit more connection."
And the community of Community Garden keeps growing.
