According to recent reporting in Austin Business Journal, Trudy’s Tex-Mex will be effectively on hiatus as it figures out its next moves.
“The nearly 50-year-old restaurant announced this week that it was closing its last standing location in North Austin. But Scott Taylor, CEO of Cherry Bounce Hospitality — a restaurant group in charge of Trudy’s — is still looking for ways to save the iconic business,” the report states.
Citing Taylor, the Journal reports that it was the North Burnet’s large size–11,000-square-feet –that led to the restaurant’s closure. Now, the business will shut down as Taylor seeks a smaller location to bring back the classic brand. Also on the table: “someone else taking over the brand or another group partnering with Cherry Bounce.”
“Probably 20 years ago, 25 years ago, that building made a lot of sense,” he said to the Journal. “They were all huge and you had this crazy crowd and it worked. But Trudy’s over time evolved. The building is just too big. It’s almost impossible to create the vibe of what we really see the Trudy’s brand being in the future.”
Taylor added the restaurant was only filled up on the weekends as weekdays were painfully slow.
“You can’t build a brand off three nights a week,” he said. “It really just made sense to shut down and move forward.”
“The CEO had been searching for a smaller space, preferably 2,500 to 3,000 square feet plus a patio. But in Austin’s tight retail market — where the metro has experienced a 97% retail occupancy rate for about two years with no ease in sight — the search went on for months, and nothing came up, according to Taylor. The CEO also had to factor in the amount of time it would take to open the new location as well,” the Journal adds.
“The brand is in a great spot. It’s just not open, which is horrible,” Taylor said. “But I think it’s positioned well for the next generation… And we’d love to see it back in Austin.”
