"Previously operating as the Townsend, the venue opened in 2015 by the Penumbral Strategic Ventures group with Austin bar expert Justin Elliott as director of hospitality; it focused on well-made cocktails, bites, and live music programming and won an Eater Award in 2015 for best new bar. The Townsend was working on opening the building's second floor as an event space but never did; in 2016 it became involved with New York-based cocktail bar Employees Only in planned expansion moves that ultimately didn't materialize, Elliott left the company in 2017, and after a temporary pandemic closure in March 2020 the shutdown was made permanent in June 2020." - Nadia Chaudhury