Review: Commodore Perry Estate, Auberge Resorts Collection

Why book? 
A revitalized, 10,800-square-foot 1928 Italianate mansion and newly-built Inn that block out the hurried city beyond.

Set the scene
Although it’s a mere 10 minutes north of Downtown Austin and off busy Red River Street, you’d never know it. Across from the over 120-year-old Hancock Golf Course and with Waller Creek streaming through the 10-acre property, the Commodore Perry Estate feels like a rural European hideaway. The restored 1928 Italianate Mansion and three-story newly-built Inn are enveloped by humungous oak trees, flowing fountains, and pristine, English-style gardens. When you wander the manicured grounds, you’ll spot well-heeled adults in flowy patterned dresses and summer linens dining on the Terrace while families skirt around the fountains and splash in the 50-foot oval swimming pool. The Estate feels as if you’ve removed yourself from bustle-y Hyde Park in Central Austin and can take a relaxed, meditative breath.

The backstory
Formerly the country home of Commodore Edgar Perry and Lutie Perry and the setting for their wild Roaring Twenties parties, they sold the estate in 1944 because, as Edgar said, the Mansion was “a great place to throw a party, but too big to live in.” The Estate then became St. Mary’s Academy and several other schools until California-based Auberge Resorts Collection scooped it up and fashioned it into its next life as the brand’s first city-based hotel. Auberge, well-known for its generously sized, luxury retreats, was particular about every detail, including utilizing original elements like the spiral staircase, terra-cotta tiles in the Solarium, and the antique light fixtures that help you feel the history. Now it’s an escape-like property a short jaunt from the city that feels like you’re miles away in Hill Country.

The rooms
Downhome Texas harmonizes with Italianate and Spanish Revival notes throughout the Mansion suites and Inn. Over the course of a few years, Ken Fulk, the hotel’s designer, scoured Round Top, Texas’s famous town for antiques, to give the rooms a sense of place and time. Each Mansion suite is bathed in personalities from the Perry family and friends. Trees and bucks cover eco-friendly cork wallpaper that ties to an antelope statue to signal the travels of Edgar Perry while Lutie’s (his wife) room is its opposite with light salmon shades contrasting wild leopard carpet and soft velvets. Swirling and intricate pink rose custom Pierre Frey wallpaper and deep blue wainscoting lead to the LaVerne suite, and mint greens and pastel pinks plus detailed wallpaper of Southwestern cacti and brush mirror Hal Thompson’s likes. Whiskey-brown armchairs that you could just sink into and rounded arches at the Inn sit above black and rust star-and-cross tile and vintage rugs while light fixtures glow like mason jars filled with lightning bugs over custom four-post beds. Some rooms have balconies where you can ogle the Mansion, greenhouse, and organic gardens.

Food and drink
Husband-and-wife duo Bradley Nicholson and Susana Querejazu (from Austin’s famed Barley Swine and Odd Duck) skate between Texas heritage cuisine and the estate’s life as a party hub in the twenties. Everything on the menus is created in-house from seasonal, organic ingredients, many of which come from the fruit trees that dot the grounds and the two-acre garden. Trying the 42-day, dry-aged Texas ribeye with marrow jus with green corn hushpuppies with truffles, and goat milk ice cream sundae drizzled with cajeta is a must. Try pairing meals with the spicy-rimmed Hyde Park cocktail of tequila, herb-infused honey, citrus, and habanero as well. Feel free to wander as you nosh. As if you were at home, Estate dining means you can move from the Solarium to the Living Room to the Terrace, or sit down to plates in Lutie’s Garden Restaurant that drips with Twenties elegance and Mrs. Perry’s charm.

The area
Even though locals will have likely driven past the area where the Estate is located to run errands, or stopped in to play at its famous golf course, it may have gone unnoticed. When pulling up the white, gravely driveway, you will feel like you are immediately removed from the city.

The service
Friendly and not invasive.

For families
From the oval-shaped swimming pool to the organic garden, this place loves broods. And activities like working in the organic garden, tented picnics, and fireside s’mores snacks mean families never have to leave the grounds.

Eco effort
The two-acre on-site garden and fruit trees provide much of the produce for the Estate, so they can source their own food and adjust menus seasonally.

Anything left to mention?
Indulge in at least one of the Experiences at the Commodore Perry Estate. The chef-prepared picnics of cold fried chicken and Texas caviar under a chic tent on the front lawn help slow you right down. There are also hands-on cooking classes with guest chefs through Chef and Friends, monthly palm readings, and a vintage antique jewelry experience with Bell and Bird.