Hoover's Cooking in East Austin to close after nearly 3 decades

Hoover's Cooking to close down in East Austin

For nearly three decades, Hoover’s Cooking has served up comfort food to families across East Austin. Now, the beloved restaurant is preparing to close, but its legacy will live on.

AUSTIN, Texas - For nearly three decades, Hoover’s Cooking has served up comfort food to families across East Austin.

Now, the beloved restaurant is preparing to close, but its legacy will live on.

Hoover Alexander shares his story

The backstory:

For Hoover Alexander, the story spans over 50 years in the restaurant business.

"It's amazing when I look back on how many years it's been, like 50 years, when I did not plan on making this a career," said Alexander Hoover, who calls himself the caretaker.

Back in 1973, Alexander was just looking for more spending money when he started work at the iconic Night Hawk restaurant, but that job quickly became more.

"It ended up being my parallel training when I looked back on my experience getting my hands on. Everything from the front of the house to the back of the house," said Alexander.

As a native East Austinite and fifth-generation Texan, Alexander built his career around one simple idea: using food to bring people together.

"One of my message statements is to let's raise our forks, let's lower our swords in differences," Alexander said.

"We've got the blue collar, the white collar. We've got every ethnic group that comes in that appreciates it. So, I feel fulfilled more than just serving food and breaking bread. But actually, helping to build a community, find a community through that prism of food," said Alexander.

Credit: Hoover's Cooking

That vision became a reality in 1998 when he opened Hoover's Cooking. It was a restaurant rooted in comfort food, family recipes, and from-scratch cooking.

"We do a lot of chopping and slicing and dicing and marinating. And some of the things may take a day or two to be ready to finish executing. And so, I take real pride in just doing those little extra steps from scratch. And hopefully people can appreciate and taste the difference," said Alexander.

After nearly three decades, a combination of pandemic challenges, staffing shortages, and a desire for more balance led to the decision to close.

"COVID has turned us upside down. We have yet to recover from what we did before then as far as sales, as far as being able to attract enough staff to execute the vision," said Alexander.

"I have made sacrifices as we do in this business. You work nights and holidays and weekends. I miss a lot of funerals and weddings, and birthday parties. So my hope is to be able to have a little more balance, be able to do some of the things that I've not been able to do," said Alexander.

But this isn't goodbye forever. Alexander says he’s not retiring, just transitioning with plans to keep the Hoovers name alive in new ways.

"I ain't done yet, I'm telling people. But I want to see what lies ahead beyond the four walls of Manor road," said Alexander.

What's next:

Hoover's Cooking will close its doors May 31.

They are inviting the community to come see them while they are open.

A citywide celebration is also planned for June 15.