Leaving a vacuum.

Hoover’s Cooking, on Manor Road, is closing at the end of May.

This stinks. I don’t eat at Hoover’s as much as I used to, since it’s a bit far away from me here in the hinterlands. But it is a pretty swell southern/soul food restaurant. I was always partial to the jerk ribs and jerk chicken. They also had very good pies.

And Mr. Alexander, other than being a long-time fixture in the Austin restaurant scene, was also very generous with his time and resources. He regularly provided food for the Austin Police Department Citizen’s Police Academy, among other charitable engagements.

The Austin High and University of Texas graduate cites slow sales, difficulty staffing and a personal pace slowed by the march of time for shuttering the restaurant located just blocks from his childhood and current home. But, Hoover the man is not done yet.

We wish him the best of luck in his future ventures.