Austin, TX – Effective Spring 2024, Austin’s beloved beer garden-slash-restaurant-slash-bakery, Easy Tiger, will shutter its East Seventh Street location. This bittersweet news, confirmed by marketing manager Gillian Navarro, signifies a shift in the landscape of Austin’s vibrant culinary scene.
“Due to a combination of challenging weather conditions and increased costs,” Navarro explained, “we cannot see a path forward for Easy Tiger at this location.” Despite the closure, Navarro assures patrons that East Austin’s bread and pastry enthusiasts need not fret, as the location’s closure will not impact Easy Tiger’s general bread and pastry production, which occurs elsewhere.
Easy Tiger’s roots stretch back to 2012, when it first blossomed as a bakery, restaurant, and beer garden on Austin’s vibrant East Sixth Street. Throughout the years, the establishment enjoyed steady expansion under then-parent hospitality group ELM, establishing outposts in Cedar Park’s Whole Foods (2017-2020), The Linc (2018), and downtown food hall Fareground (2018).
However, in early 2018, Easy Tiger embarked on a path of independence, severing ties with ELM and eventually closing the Fareground location in early 2019. The global pandemic, unfortunately, led to the closure of the original downtown Easy Tiger in 2020. Yet, amidst the challenges, the spirit of Easy Tiger persevered, culminating in the 2020 opening of a new location on South Lamar, occupying the former Red’s Porch space.