Downtown Food Hall Restaurants Henbit and TLV Will Close in Late March

Downtown Austin food court restaurants, the fast-casual American spot Henbit and Israeli stand TLV, will close within Fareground in March. The two restaurants’ last days at 111 Congress Avenue will be on Monday, March 20.

The two restaurants’ parent company Emmer & Rye Hospitality decided to close the businesses so that it can work on opening its next new restaurant, the Mediterranean restaurant Ezov in East Austin, this spring. A rep noted that the company wants to reopen Henbit and TLV elsewhere in the future too.

The shutters also meant that Henbit’s iconic Monster Cookie, a gigantic cookie packed with pecans and chocolate chips created by partner and executive pastry chef Tavel Bristol-Joseph, won’t be available anymore. It’ll halt its retail offerings at Whole Foods Market and national shipping service.

Henbit was part of the original lineup for Fareground, which had been Austin’s very first food hall, back in 2018. TLV, from chef Berty Richter who joined the Emmer & Rye group, opened in 2019 taking over what had been Easy Tiger’s space. The restaurants are choosing to close after South by Southwest, the massive festival that takes place mostly in the downtown area, which would mean a lot of traffic and sales.

Originally, Fareground opened in 2018 under the ELM Restaurant Group. In 2021, Fareground owners, the real estate company Cousins Properties, ceased that partnership and switched to the Richard Sandoval Hospitality. That lead to a swapping of restaurants that had closed during the earlier parts of the pandemic.

Eater has reached out to Fareground for information on what restaurants will take over Henbit’s and TLV’s spaces.