Gardner to Close March 11

It looks like the great restaurant bloodbath of 2016 is continuing apace. Gardner, Contigo owners Ben Edgerton and Andrew Wiseheart's award-winning vegetable-forward concept, will close March 11. It’s not all bad news though. A new concept, Chicon, will be opening in the same space by late March.

“Andrew and I feel extremely fortunate to work together and alongside what we consider the best team of people in our industry,” said Edgerton in a release. “We are fortunate to have been afforded the opportunity to launch three businesses in our tenure. Gardner was the most ambitious of these three concepts, and it has been extremely rewarding to serve the people of Austin for the past year and a half. Ultimately, our goal is to serve our community well, and we are excited to work diligently to transform the Gardner space into a new restaurant that will accomplish that goal.”

The new space will be reconfigured by architect Kevin Stewart, and Ann Edgerton, Ben’s wife and the person behind Gardner’s stunning Scandinavian minimalist decor, will once again be decorating the space. The interior will riff on the rancho deluxe setting of sister restaurant Contigo, with steel and cedar furniture from Brian Chilton and custom terra cotta lighting from Clayworks Studio. The food will focus on wood-fire cooking with an expanded cocktail program.

The final days of Gardner will be filled with weekly special menus and wine and cocktail specials announced through social media.