East Austin Bar and San Diego Burrito Spot Troublemaker Is Now Closed

East Austin bar, record shop, and burrito restaurant Troublemaker is closed permanently, due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The 1209 East Seventh Street spot was known for its San Diego burritos (stuffed with french fries with no rice or beans), easy cocktails, and record shop area run with the help of local store End of an Ear.

Co-owner Chad Dolezal told Eater that the cancellation of South by Southwest “was a big thing for us” in March, and then the idea of reopening with limited capacity during the historically slow summer “just didn’t seem like a good business decision.” The bar offered takeout food orders while state-wide dining rooms were closed, but halted that service in mid-April.

“That’s a long way of saying the future is too uncertain for us to take the risk financially,” Dolezal continued.

On social media, Dolezal urged people to support local and small businesses during this time, “even the ones that seem like there is no way they could shut down,” as well as food-oriented organizations that are pushing for changes on the national scale, such as Bakers Against Racism and World Central Kitchen.

Troublemaker opened in November 2019 under Dolezal and co-owner/general manager Victor Farnsworth. Before Troublemaker, the address had been home to their first restaurant, the Texan New American spot The Hightower, which opened in 2014 and closed in August 2019.

Now that Troublemaker is officially closed, Dolezal is turning his attention to a new project in Dallas, which will be announced later next month. This isn’t related to that potential Hightower expansion that was revealed in 2017 (he said that they “got pulled in a different direction”).

• Troublemaker [Instagram]
• All Coverage of Troublemaker [EATX]