Late Checkout: There's a 1920s Italian Villa Hiding on 10 Acres in the Middle of Austin

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Ten minutes from downtown Austin, behind a stone wall on a busy street you'd otherwise drive straight past, there’s a gorgeous Italian villa on ten acres. You turn in through the gate, the gravel crunches under the tires, and suddenly, it feels like you’ve been dropped into the historic Italian countryside. The buildings are stucco structures with red tiled roofs, there’s a small chapel, twisting, tree-lined paths, and even a tinkling fountain in the middle of a sprawling grass lawn lined by gardens.

At the heart of this property is a 10,800-square-foot Italian Renaissance Revival mansion, built in 1928, looking like it got lost on its way to Fiesole and decided to stay.

I spent one night at Commodore Perry Estate, Auberge's first urban property, and had to pinch myself at the fact that I was able to get the feeling of a European getaway with only 20 minutes of travel time (and zero plane ride!). How can this property that tricks the mind into thinking you’re in the heart of Tuscany be so close to skyscrapers and a bustling downtown scene? It doesn’t compute, but it’s real, and I’m already dreaming of the next time I’ll get to go back.

Getting There:

The estate sits at 4100 Red River Street, about twenty minutes from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and roughly ten from downtown, in the Hancock neighborhood just east of the University of Texas campus. While Hancock itself is fine enough to explore on foot, the rest of the city isn’t walkable from this address. However, the hotel runs a complimentary Mercedes loaner program for guests, which covers short trips around town. For anything further out, plan on ride shares or your own vehicle (valet parking is available on property).

The Property:

The estate was built in 1928 for Edgar "Commodore" Perry, an Austin businessman and real estate developer, and his wife Lutie. Architect Henry Bowers Thompson designed it after the couple's European travels, which is how Austin ended up with an Italianate mansion that’s now on the National Register of Historic Places, with a carriage house and a series of formal gardens laid out along Waller Creek behind a stone wall. Perry sold it in 1944, declaring the house "a great place to throw a party, but too big to live in," after which it spent decades as a succession of schools. 

Designer Ken Fulk, working with Auberge, Clayton Korte, Moule & Polyzoides, and Ten Eyck Landscape Architects brought it back in 2020, giving it the luxury upgrades it needed to become a destination hotel. Today, the grounds are pristine, the structures have been fully restored, and the interiors have that simple European appeal of thoughtful, well-designed pieces that feel approachable but historical and comfortable but chic at the same time. 

There are 54 rooms in total: Five are suites inside the Mansion itself, each named for someone who actually lived there. Mr. Perry's has a safari pattern play, Mrs. Perry's runs pink velvet and muted leopard, and LaVerne's honors the woman who bought the estate in 1974 and kept it standing. The remaining rooms are in the Inn, a newer three-story courtyard building that carries the Italian and Spanish notes without pretending to be historic (which I appreciate.)

Worth knowing before you book: the Inn rooms are lovely, though the villa fantasy that draws most people here really lives in the Mansion.

Rates range from $420-730 for a standard room, depending on the season. Guests are also extended membership to the estate's Social Club during their stay; this gets you access to the Mansion's ground floor where you can have a cocktail and enjoy some live music most nights.

Dinner at Lutie's:

Lutie's is the restaurant on-site, and it would be a destination on its own merits with no hotel attached. It was truly one of the best meals I’ve had in Austin so far in a year-plus of living there. The dining room is a modern twist on the rest of the property’s historic European vibe, done in green and gold with hanging greenery overhead, richly textured booths, and gorgeous gresh floral arrangements. Windows open onto the hedge garden and its fountain, so it’s a good idea to sit on the terrace (if the weather allows) and time it for golden hour. Sunset with a glass of white wine out there with a good breeze? Chef’s kiss.

To eat: Start with the Fritto Misto. There's barely any description about what exactly you'll be getting with each dish, but what arrived for me when I ordered this was a jumbo shrimp wrapped in zucchini and fresh vegetables with a light breading, presented with a savory yum-yum-like sauce. 

The ingredients were simple but high quality, and despite it being breaded and fried, it felt like a very light and refreshing appetizer. This dish also turns up on the social hour menu, which runs Mondays 5-10 and Tuesday through Sunday 5-6, bar and patio only, with bottles of wine half off up to $200. If you don't have time for an overnight stay, dinner here is a great way to capture the “escape to Italy” feeling on a budget.

Order the Estate Bread regardless of what else you get. It's made with a decades-old starter and fermented corn grits, seared, and served with brown and cultured butter, and it is the single most discussed item on the menu for good reason. Use it on everything.

The dish I'd come back for, though, is dessert. The kouign amann ice cream arrives as a scoop set beside a miniature kouign amann with warm caramel poured over it. The custard and warm caramel contrasted with the crunchy pastry shell made it a perfect sweet and salty combo. I literally gasped at how delicious this was!

The Pool, Fitness & Wellness:

The 50-foot oval pool is the property's hot weather escape zone with cheery yellow loungers and umbrellas arranged around it. It has a real 1960s Mad Men vibe, and I found myself listening to French pop songs and humming “Zou Bisou Bisou” on loop while there. At golden hour, this pool got even more dreamy.

There's also a 24-hour fitness room, plus weekly wellness programming that runs to yoga on the estate lawn, breathwork, sound healing, and candlelit meditation. There is no full-service spa on-site, but they do have a spa suite where you can book massages and other spa-like treatments; you’ll need to plan in advance if this is of interest, as it’s a small-scale offering. At this price point, that will matter to some people, and if a spa day is the reason you're booking a hotel, Austin has better options. However, the ten acres of quiet is the trade.

What to Do While Staying at Commodore Perry:

• The Listening Room, with Fulk's Round Top gramophone and a record collection to work through. Best after dinner, ideally with a drink.
• Programming. Cooking classes, exhibits with emerging artists, live music on the terrace, partner chef dinners. Check the calendar before you lock your dates.
• The grounds themselves. Lawn games, prepared picnics, the chapel, and the gardens, which Ten Eyck restored beautifully. Do nothing! Just sit on the patio and read in the quiet and relax.
• Bike around. There are bikes available for borrowing if you decide you'd rather pedal around the property, and this feels like another European wink.

Around the Area:

The estate is a bubble by design, though you're in Austin, so leave it at least once. Hancock and Hyde Park are immediately around you and genuinely walkable, full of old bungalows and big trees. My personal favorite stop is Antontelli’s Cheese Shop, where you can sample as many cheeses as you like before you decide on your final purchases to take home (or back to your hotel). Great wine selection here, too.

Everything else is inside a ten-minute drive: Lady Bird Lake and the hike and bike trail, Barton Springs, the museums, South Congress if you want the postcard version of the city. The Hill Country wineries are about an hour west, and worth the day if you have one to spare.

The Verdict:

Commodore Perry takes a city you may already know and makes it feel like a whole other country for 48 hours. Book it for an anniversary weekend, for a design pilgrimage, for a visit from out of town when you want Austin without Rainey Street, or for a weekend when you live here and need to disappear without going anywhere. Families needing a kids' club should look elsewhere, as should anyone whose trip is organized around a spa menu.

Perry gave up the house in 1944 because it was too big to live in. A great place to throw a party, he said, and nothing else. Nearly a century on, someone finally found the use case he couldn't. You don't have to live there, but you can pretend for a few days.