Still temporarily closed are the satellite location of Contigo, Dai Due’s taco-focused location, and ELM’s Italian restaurant Italic (the original location on West Sixth is also temporarily closed), and both bars, including the street-level Ellis. While fast-casual Henbit’s location is closed to the public, it is shipping out its famous monster cookies nationally, which are being prepped at the food hall. Israeli street food stand TLV has reopened in Fareground as of early June, though it’s only open for to-go orders through curbside pickups and third-party deliveries. Ni-Kome, one of the original vendors, is the first and only vendor so far to announce that it isn’t reopening. They couldn’t foresee a safe way to reopen in a safe way, but they want to eventually reopen the noodle soup shop somewhere in a new location at some point.įareground, operated by Austin restaurant group ELM, had announced it was temporarily closing in March (along with most businesses in the city) to mitigate the novel coronavirus pandemic. The pair closed their downtown Austin ramen restaurant Daruma this past June. This isn’t Asazu and co-owner Takehiro Asazu’s first pandemic-related restaurant shutter. She noted that sushi and ramen is still available at Kome, which is only open for takeout service.

The stall had served a combination menu from Ni-Kome’s sibling restaurants: sushi from Kome and chicken broth-based ramen from the now-closed Daruma.

“It was a very difficult decision to make,” wrote co-owner Kayo Asazu in an email, “but due to COVID-related circumstances, we feel it is the best to close this project for now.” Downtown Austin Japanese food hall vendor, Ni-Kome, is now closed permanently in Fareground on 111 Congress Avenue, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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