Longtime South Austin Restaurant Is Closing

Classic Austin restaurant Hill’s Cafe is closing because the 4700 South Congress Avenue land is being turned into presumably a mixed-use development, as reported by Austin 360. Its last day of service in the West Congress neighborhood will be on Wednesday, September 12.

The Goodnight family, which opened Hill’s Cafe back in 1947, still plans on keeping the restaurant alive. There are plans to relocate the restaurant, known for its Texas comfort foods like chicken fried steak and burgers, into a new development down the street near Ben White Boulevard and Congress Avenue, though that will take about two years to happen, as limited partner Bob Cole told Austin 360.

Cole reopened Hill’s Cafe in 2001 after the restaurant shuttered in 1989. Company Trade Logic also became part-owners of the restaurant in 2013, which also operates Star Seeds Cafe, Cain and Abel’s, Abel’s on the Lake, and El Arroyo. It sold historic sports bar the Tavern to the owners of Esther’s Follies earlier this year.

This shutter marks the second notable classic Austin restaurant closure of the past three parts, the first being the Frisco up on Burnet, which closed at the end of July.

• Hill’s Cafe to close South Austin location, bound for new development [Austin 360]
• All Coverage of Hill’s Cafe [EATX]