Pflugerville has lost another longtime neighborhood gathering place after Springhill Restaurant ended its 41-year run on Friday, October 16. The beloved Texas catfish restaurant had welcomed generations of families since 1985.
Founder Carroll Humphrey built Springhill around straightforward Southern cooking and Texas hospitality. Fried catfish was the star, joined by fried shrimp, chicken-fried steak, burgers, okra, hush puppies, fried green tomatoes and peach cobbler. Its daily lunch buffet—and especially the Friday buffet remembered by regulars—gave families and coworkers an affordable place to fill a plate and linger.
Four decades of catfish and conversation
The food was only part of Springhill’s identity. The restaurant’s walls and rafters were crowded with antiques, signs and pieces of Texas history, including tributes to Lone Star Beer, Bastrop Feed Company, Dixie Pig and Granger Hardware and Tin Shop. The eclectic collection made the dining room feel less like a polished chain and more like a place that had accumulated stories one meal at a time.
There was also the “Liars’ Table,” where co-owner Jack Payne and other regulars met for weekday lunches. It captured what customers valued most: familiar faces, friendly service and the freedom to sit, talk and return again. Reviews on the restaurant’s website repeatedly praised both the seafood and the old-fashioned atmosphere, with some customers recalling visits stretching back to childhood.
Why Springhill closed
Humphrey and Payne told local news outlets that fewer people were dining out, while rent on the 6,000-square-foot building had climbed beyond what the business could afford. Humphrey, now 85, also said declining health had made it harder to maintain the hands-on presence he once had at the restaurant. The combination of softer traffic, rising rent and personal health challenges ultimately made continuing unsustainable.
The closing was announced in September, giving customers several weeks to return for one more plate. Springhill remained open through October 16, while an online auction began offering the antiques, signs, furnishings and restaurant equipment that had filled the building. Employees were scheduled to begin taking down items on October 17, turning pieces of the dining room into keepsakes.
A Pflugerville landmark says goodbye
For longtime customers, Springhill’s closure removes more than another seafood option from the Austin suburb. It ends a routine shared by families, lunch groups and neighbors who knew what they would find when they walked through the door: hot catfish, a crowded buffet, Texas memorabilia and people who remembered them.
The restaurant’s final days drew customers eager to say goodbye and preserve a piece of its history. Springhill may have closed because the numbers no longer worked, but 41 years of family meals and conversations made its place in Pflugerville much larger than its balance sheet.
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