El Tiempo Cantina in Webster closed Thursday, Sept. 3, after nearly nine years, vacating a 15,000-square-foot space on the Gulf Freeway.

The Tex-Mex restaurant at 20237 Gulf Freeway shut down with no advance notice to customers, Chron.com reported. The franchise's local management team broke the news in a post on the Bay Area Houston Food Lovers Facebook page on Thursday, Sept. 3.

"After so many years of serving this wonderful community, this is a heartbreaking day for all of us," the team wrote. "We have fought hard to keep our doors open, and this is the fourth time the El Tiempo corporate group has attempted to close our restaurant. Unfortunately … they were successful."

The management team did not give a reason for the closure in its statement.

Malena Sereno, a regional manager for El Tiempo Cantina who also manages the chain's Washington Avenue location in Houston, confirmed the closure to the Houston Chronicle on Friday, Sept. 4. A corporate spokesperson told Community Impact Newspaper that the franchise owner said the location may reopen at an undisclosed time.

The Webster location, about 23 miles south of Houston on the Gulf Freeway, opened in 2017 as the eighth El Tiempo Cantina in the Houston area. Roland Laurenzo, the son of Ninfa Laurenzo, and his son Domenic Laurenzo opened the first El Tiempo in 1998 to expand the family's legacy in Houston's Tex-Mex scene. The chain now has locations across the Greater Houston area, including one at George Bush Intercontinental Airport that opened in 2023 and a location at POST Houston that opened in early 2026.

The local management team's Facebook post described the closure in personal terms, saying the restaurant had "the honor of watching generations of families walk through our doors." The post did not cite financial difficulties or any specific dispute with the corporate office beyond the claim that previous closure attempts had been made.

No reopening date or timeline has been announced.