I am sitting in East Austin's newest eatery, Hillside Farmacy, hours after it officially opened on Monday. The interior meets expectations and is smartly done; it's reminiscent of the pharmacy it once was, but in a warm, friends-house sort of way. Nothing antiseptic about it at all. The place was already humming with activity when I walked through its doors, and I was quickly ushered to a small copper-topped bistro table from where I write this very moment.

Reviewing the menu, I was at once intrigued. The specialties of the house are artisanal cheese and charcuterie plates and a Raw Bar featuring fresh oysters and peel-and-eat shrimp. A number of small plates include marinated mushrooms, giganti beans, house gravlax and sausage-stuffed cured peppers.

A list of sandwiches bring some interesting combinations — corned pork belly with house slaw, a grassfed ribeye with mushroom shallot tapenade — and the one I ordered: Cook's Sandwich with sliced pate, bacon, mustard, pickles, arugula and goat cheese. I'm not normally a pate fan, but this just sounded too fascinating to pass up. And it is delicious, as well as beautifully presented with a swirl of olive oil and stalk of fennel.

Within 10 minutes of sitting here, several staff members stopped by to introduce themselves, welcome me and make sure I had everything I needed. Greg Mathews, co-owner along with his wife Jade, was one of them. He had an interesting story to tell about the pharmacy theme and decor.

It seems that while the Mathews and Executive Chef Sonya Coté (of East Side Showroom) were still searching for a place to open their artisanal eatery and specialty grocery store, Greg heard about some fixtures that were for sale in Elgin. He drove out, expecting to be ushered into a warehouse. Instead, the door to an old, closed pharmacy was opened — in which stood all the original display cases as they had been left when the pharmacy was boarded up years before.

"It was incredible," Greg says. "The cases were beautiful, and full of character." With the purchase made, he headed back to Austin to find Sonya standing in front of what used to be Gene's Po Boys on the east side.

The owner of the building was letting her in to look at the potential space, and introduced herself as Yvette Turner. Her father was Austin's first black pharmacist, and before it was Gene's the building was home to his pharmacy, Hillside Drugstore.

"I heard the word pharmacy, and chills went down my arms," Greg tells me. "I had just bought all these pharmacy cabinets. Turns out Yvette used to work the soda fountain here many years ago." The design and name concept of Hillside Farmacy was born.

Come on down and check it out. For myself, I can't wait to try their Fountain Sodas with house-made syrups. Unfortunately their syrups aren't ready yet, but my mouth is already salivating for the Lilly, made with lavender, berry and honey. I will definitely be a regular.

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Find Hillside Farmacy at 1209 E. 11th Street, or on Facebook.