A yellow historic house at 1005 S. Rock St. has a pecan tree out back big enough to shade a whole yard. Since September 2024, a coffee truck called Rose & Dagger Coffee Co. has been parked under it. This fall, the business that started in the backyard took over the house. The yard, now called The Grounds, has three food trucks parked around that tree.
The yard filled up before the house did. By the time Rose & Dagger opened its doors inside the house on Sept. 5, the taco truck, the sourdough trailer and the churro truck were already there. On Halloween, all of them get their first big shared event.
The truck came first, then the house
Madison and Jackson Vacek run Rose & Dagger. They told Community Impact that they met working at a coffee shop as teenagers. In 2020, stuck in their apartment during quarantine, they wrote out the whole menu and concept for a shop of their own. The truck was never the plan. It was simply what was available, and it ended up parked in the backyard of the house it now runs.
When the lease on the house came up in early summer 2026, the couple took it. Renovating turned into a bigger job than they expected. According to the same report, Rose & Dagger is the first food-service business ever to use the house, so it needed a lot of work before it could run as a coffee shop. In a July preview in Community Impact, Madison Vacek said a fully established coffee shop had always been the long-term goal.
"Knowing we started in the backyard … to have the lease of the house, and our own coffee shop. It's been amazing." Jackson Vacek, speaking to Community Impact
Jackson Vacek also works as a firefighter for the Georgetown Fire Department. Asked what comes next for the shop, he told the outlet, "Our big next thing is not having a next thing for a while."
Three trucks moved in before the doors opened
Over the summer, the backyard filled up one vendor at a time. The dates come from Community Impact's Sept. 30 Georgetown business roundup:
- Sanford Sourdough Bakery, July 1. This Round Rock bakery opened its Georgetown trailer selling San Francisco-style sourdough. It carries artisan and sandwich loaves, a lunch menu of sandwiches and soup, sourdough starters, and frozen take-and-bake goods.
- El Hombre Tacos, late July. Owner Eric Thornell took one of his catering trucks and parked it permanently behind the coffee shop. The signature Hombre Taco is steak and melted cheese on a flour tortilla. The truck also serves nachos and street tacos on corn tortillas.
- Churros ATX, Aug. 1. Owner Cesar Velasco moved the truck here from the Tasty Trails food truck park. The menu runs from churros with a dulce de leche filling to chicken and beef empanadas.
The Churros ATX move says the most about the site. The truck already had a spot in an established food truck park and gave it up for a backyard shared with a coffee shop. Sourdough loaves, empanadas and lattes all do best with morning and lunch crowds, and the yard puts all three in one place under shade.
The yard runs on daytime hours
The Grounds is a daytime spot. Every vendor with posted hours closes by mid-afternoon, so plan for breakfast or lunch, not dinner.
- Rose & Dagger Coffee Co. Its online ordering page lists Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed Sunday. Hours for a new storefront can change, so check the shop's Instagram, @roseanddaggercoffeeco, before an early run.
- Churros ATX. Its website lists Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Sanford Sourdough Bakery. The bakery's website lists the Georgetown trailer as open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and closed Sunday through Tuesday.
- El Hombre Tacos. The truck posts its scheduled stops on a calendar on its website. Check there before going.
From Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., the coffee shop, the churro truck and the bakery trailer are all open at once. Sunday is the one day the yard goes quiet. Monday is coffee only, and on Tuesday the churros join in.
Getting there is simple. Georgetown's visitor site lists free public parking in the library lot at Rock and Ninth streets and in the South Rock Street lot at Rock and Fourth streets. It also lists three-hour spaces downtown that are free Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The full list is on the city's downtown parking page.
Halloween week gets two downtown events
The yard's first big event is Halloween at The Grounds on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The listing says Rose & Dagger is organizing it. The event listing includes:
- Trick-or-treating at the food trucks and businesses, with Sanford Sourdough Bakery, Churros ATX, El Hombre Taco, VivaWell Massage Therapy, Rush Beauty Bar and The Studio GTX named as participants
- Pumpkin decorating while supplies last
- A Halloween photo booth with McKale Visuals
- A dog costume contest at 1 p.m.
- Coffee and food
The listing says costumes are encouraged for the whole family, "pups included." Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so the event lands on a regular yard day and runs inside the posted hours of every vendor that lists them.
It also pairs well with the Square's own event six days earlier. The Downtown Georgetown Association's Candy Crawl is set for Sunday, Oct. 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. It's free trick-or-treating at participating businesses around the Square, and costumes are encouraged. That puts the two downtown trick-or-treat events on different weekends and different days of the week. The Square's crawl is Sunday afternoon, when the backyard is closed. The backyard's event is the following Saturday, when it's at full strength. Families can do both without picking one.
After Halloween, the Square takes over the calendar
The backyard doesn't have any events posted past Oct. 31 yet. The DGA calendar has the next dates downtown:
- Lighting of the Square: Friday, Nov. 27, at 5:30 p.m. The lights stay on nightly through Jan. 1. Parking is listed at the downtown garage and other nearby lots. Details are on the DGA event page.
- Christmas Stroll: The 45th annual Stroll runs three days, Dec. 4 to 6, with the theme "Hometown Christmas Stroll: A Season to Gather." The 44th annual Stroll, held Dec. 5 to 7, had a Candyland theme, according to a City of Georgetown announcement. The DGA's Stroll page has the current details.
The Lighting of the Square starts at 5:30 p.m., and the yard's vendors list closing times of 3 p.m. Anyone who wants coffee and churros before the lights come on will need to come by early in the afternoon.
Jackson Vacek told Community Impact that small businesses in Georgetown want to see each other succeed. In his backyard, that means a coffee shop, a taco truck, a sourdough trailer and a churro truck sharing one pecan tree on South Rock Street.
If a coffee shop and a backyard within walking distance are part of how you judge a Georgetown block, Eduardo at MoveToAustinTexas.com can show you how places like this factor into value near the Square, block by block, in English or Spanish. Get your free Austin market valuation and strategy call.
