How would you like to have a goat with your morning espresso?
If you go to the Civil Goat Coffee Company in Austin, you can do just that.
Butters, a five-month-old pygmy goat, visits the coffee shop for a couple of hours each day, much to the delight of the people who get their morning joe there.
The shirt-and-diaper-clad goatling was named after a character in the TV series South Park.
“He can be awesome at times and a royal pain at others,” café owner Chris O’Brien said of his capricious pet in an interview with Eater Austin, “but he’s a goat, so I’ve come to accept it.”
O’Brien said with a laugh that Butters, not the coffee or staff, is the main attraction.
In case you’re wondering, the name came before the mascot. The Civil Goat got its moniker from the book The Devil’s Cup, written by Stewart Lee Allen, where the author wrote a story of how goats led humans to discover coffee.
The Civil Goat sources its coffee beans from around the world, from countries like Ethiopia, Rwanda, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Brazil.
If you’re looking for some other fun things to do in Austin, check out these options:
- Visit the state capitol. Learn some cool facts about the history of Texas and the city of Austin. At one time, it was the tallest capitol building in the country.
- Check out the LBJ Presidential Library. Experience the life and times of Lyndon B. Johnson, one of our nation’s most fascinating and most controversial presidents.
- Do the Austin Live Music Crawl. Experience Austin’s live music scene through a three-hour tour by a guide who is also a local musician. Visit some of Austin’s iconic clubs and up-and-coming night spots, and hear some live music while you’re at it.
- Take the Austin Brewery Tour. Are you a fan of microbrews? You can experience the best of Austin’s local offerings ion this four-hour tour. Learn about Texas beer culture and have tastings at each stop. (And so you don’t have to drive after all that beer tasting, transportation from each bar is included.)
- Hike Mount Bonnell. This beautiful park stands almost 800 feet over Austin, so you can get a birds-eye view of the city and the Colorado River at the end of this relatively easy hike.
- Have a swim at Barton Springs Pool. Despite its name, this is not a pool but a 1,000-foot-long natural limestone pond fed by several underground springs. Apparently it’s also a good fishing spot.
What have you done when visiting Austin? Share your experiences in the comments!
Photo: RoschetzkyProductions / Shutterstock.com