31-Year-Old East Austin Restaurant Institution Is Closing

Eastside Cafe, the longtime Austin restaurant known for being one of the first to focus on real farm-to-table cooking, is closing. Its last day on 2113 Manor Road is on Thursday, January 31.

However, there’s a new owner for the restaurant space: Eastside’s Elaine Martin sold the restaurant space to Sam Hellman-Mass, the owner of new Mexican restaurant Suerte.

Hellman-Mass, who is also an Odd Duck and Barley Swine alum, will turn the soon-to-be former Eastside Cafe space into a restaurant, though further details aren’t known at this point.

Presumably, the East Side Cafe sale also includes the on-site pie shop Elaine’s Pork & Pie.

Martin opened Eastside Cafe back in 1988 with Dorsey Barger. Barger left in 2011 and now operates urban farm Hausbar. Martin will retire after Eastside’s last day.

Hellman-Mass was one of the founding partners of locally focused restaurant Odd Duck. He left to open Suerte last spring with chef Fermín Nuñez to much acclaim. (Nuñez was named Eater Austin’s chef of the year in 2018.)

• All Coverage of Eastside Cafe [EATX]