COVID-19 closure

Iconic Austin cafe permanently closes Tarrytown location after COVID-19 financial fallout

Magnolia Cafe breakfast diner pancakes eggs

Austin has lost an iconic restaurant to the coronavirus-slammed economy. The owners of Magnolia Cafe — a proud carrier of the “Keep Austin Weird” torch — announced April 16 that they’ve permanently closed their location on Lake Austin Boulevard.

In a Facebook post, the owners said business had been slowing at the Tarrytown restaurant for the past few years. But the “huge hit” from the city’s mandate to temporarily halt dine-in operations and “the incredible uncertainty of the future” forced Magnolia Cafe’s owners “to confront the fact that this location will not survive,” according to the post.

“To our neighbors and loyal customers of that location for so many years, thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” the owners wrote. The West Austin location opened in 1979.

Magnolia Cafe’s location on South Congress Avenue remains in business, but it’s closed for now and will reopen “when it is safe to do so,” the Facebook post says.

Both locations had offered curbside pickup after Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a citywide stay-at-home order, which includes a ban on dine-in service at restaurants, though it ended up stopping the service.

“The more we learned about how the new coronavirus spreads, the more we have realized the best way we can support our community in these strange times is to temporarily close our doors and help the global effort to keep this virus from spreading,” according to the Magnolia Cafe website.

The eclectic menu at Magnolia Cafe features breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner options. But the restaurant is perhaps best known for its breakfast fare, including gingerbread pancakes, the T. Rex turkey and cheese omelet, Love Migas, and Eggs Zapatino (scrambled eggs on a toasted English muffin smothered in queso and served with home fries).

Other Magnolia Cafe specialties include Mag Mud queso, pasta Alfredo, and the Magnolia brownie.

Representatives of Magnolia Cafe couldn’t be reached for comment.

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Back to the Plow

Homey Austin jam and bake shop closing and returning to farmers market

Confituras/Instagram

Confituras Little Kitchen is closing its brick-and-mortar store, but feeling optimistic about the future.

A famers market find is returning to its natural environment after six years in a brick-and-mortar location. Confituras Little Kitchen, which specializes in locally sourced preserves, is closing its jam and biscuit shop after service on Sunday, December 22. However, it will continue selling goods at the Barton Creek Farmers Market and via retailers.

Confituras announced the change in a newsletter to its customers in December. The letter called the news "bittersweet."

"Although the brick and mortar will no longer be, the good news is that this will be a fresh new start for us – we are bursting with energy and creativity at the thought of being back out in the community where it all started for confituras," it said.

The kitchen is closing because the lease is up, and the team has decided to "give up the chase." The newsletter emphasized the ups-and-downs of business over the past several years — ones that were chaotic for just about any business, let alone a small, fairly niche food operation.

"So much has happened since we decided to open a brick + mortar – a wonderful kickstarter fundraiser, THE PANDEMIC, the AFTER-EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC, and an ever growing city," the letter says. "We tried so very hard but never really got our footing. We know we are not alone, many small business are in the same boat. We renewed our lease during the pandemic because we were hopeful we could make it work - the changing times had other ideas."

Finally, it shared how customers could keep enjoying Confituras creations:

The Barton Creek Farmers Market is open at 2901 S. Capital of Texas Hwy. every Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm.
A list on confituras.net compiles retailers including Royal Blue Grocery, Farmhouse Delivery, and Antonelli's Cheese Shop.
Jam share and Table22 subscription customers will have more instructions coming soon about picking up their goods in January at the same space, 2129 Goodrich Ave.
Customers may also reach out to inquire about continuing to order meals directly.

The kitchen also hosted frequent events and workshops, but the letter did not address this aspect of the business.

A shorter message shared on Instagram has inspired 63 comments so far, five days later. Customers eulogized the shop for its community feel and providing a sense of regularity during the height of the pandemic thanks to weekend pick-ups.