Woodward and Park Is Closing After Three Years in Grant Park

Another restaurant is closing at the Larkin on Memorial in Grant Park. Woodward and Park closes Sunday, February 26, after three years at the complex, co-owner James Brooks confirms. The closure of Woodward and Park follows the closure of neighboring restaurant Full Commission in January.

Brooks says the decision to close was prompted by the impending relocation of his partners in the restaurant. Chef Christian Heninger and general manager Amanda Heninger, who are also husband and wife, are moving with their family to Savannah.

“Rather than go through the effort to find new ownership and management staff for our current location, we have decided instead to close and consider other future opportunities intown.”

Woodward and Park first opened in September 2020 and offers a neighborhood bistro menu of dishes, ranging from avocado deviled eggs, baked shrimp dip, and P.E.I. mussels to fish and chips, vegan bolognese, and mahi-mahi in a Cajun cream sauce. Like Full Commission, Monday evenings often saw pop-ups in the kitchen at Woodward and Park.

Full Commission, one of the original restaurants to open at Larkin on Memorial, closed in January after four years there. Upon opening in 2018, Full Commission was an all-day restaurant and bar serving pastries and coffee in the morning, with brunch, dinner, and cocktails later in the day. The pandemic forced a shift in service, including a temporary closure in 2020 and the discontinuation of brunch and dinner last year in favor of hosting a series of pop-ups, like Polish food pop-up Brave Wojtek, Laotian food pop-up So So Fed, and Taiwanese-American food pop-up Mighty Hans. A source with knowledge of the closure says Full Commission was thousands of dollars behind in rent and had been struggling for several months.

With the closures of Full Commission and Woodward and Park, only Firepit Pizza Tavern, Ramen Station, Grant Park Market, and Kale Me Crazy remain open at the complex. Firepit Pizza Tavern owner chef Leslie Cohen plans to open Latin food restaurant Birdcage adjacent to her pizzeria in a standalone building along Memorial Drive later this year.