Austin Restaurant Cenote Will Close and Move Eventually | Eater Austin

"Founded in 2012, this longtime East Austin cafe at 1010 East Cesar Chavez Street is losing its longtime home after the space was sold in March to developers planning a new build that will include a California-based chain. Owner and co-founder Mary Jenkins agreed to a lease buyout but has no firm timeline and is working to relocate the cafe—potentially later this year or next—by launching a crowdfunding investment campaign on Honeycomb Credit and scouting sites in Hyde Park or along Airport Boulevard, with designer Michelle Marchessault tapped for the new space. A central community concern is the cafe’s free Narcan vending machine, installed in 2023 through the N.I.C.E. Project in honor of Jenkins’s husband, Cody Symington (who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2021); the dispenser has distributed roughly 2,800 doses, but the new owners say it would be a construction “liability” and plan to keep it offline for the estimated one- to 14-month build, prompting a petition to preserve it. In response, arrangements were made to install a separate Narcan machine at the nearby public library branch so neighborhood access to naloxone is maintained. The business also opened a second Windsor Park location in 2017 (closed 2022) and the original space previously housed the Paper Route bakery from 2018 to 2023." - Nadia Chaudhury