Fork & Tumbler to close Ninth Street dining room May 2

A familiar Ninth Street dining room is going dark just as construction has made the corridor harder to navigate and harder to sell from. Fork & Tumbler said its last dinner service will be Saturday, May 2, leaving diners six more chances to visit before the Lawrence restaurant closes its Ninth Street space.

The move lands with immediate impact for downtown workers, nearby residents and regulars who used the small plates and cocktails spot as part of the East Ninth mix. Fork & Tumbler opened in June 2024, and owners Rob Coleman and Brad Walters said last fall that they had taken on hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to get the restaurant launched. They have repeatedly tied the business strain to the Jayhawk Watershed Project, which has reshaped traffic patterns, parking and visibility along the block.

The city closed Ninth Street between Indiana and Louisiana streets to all traffic on Dec. 1, 2025. Officials said businesses on that block would stay open and accessible, but there would be no parking on Ninth Street. The closure was expected to last into spring 2026 before the work pushed farther east toward Mississippi Street, extending the disruption for a corridor already under pressure.

The watershed project was designed to reduce flooding and protect homes and businesses, while replacing an aging stormwater system that includes an underground stone culvert built in 1911 and now considered undersized. Along Ninth Street, the city’s plan also calls for reconfiguring the road from four lanes to three between Illinois and Kentucky streets, adding wider bike lanes, improving ADA sidewalks and installing a new crosswalk beacon. Lawrence city commissioners approved the lane change in October 2024 as part of the broader project.

Fork & Tumbler’s closure is the latest sign of how long public works projects can ripple through downtown commerce. The East Ninth effort began in late March 2025 with closures and construction on Eighth and Tennessee streets, and it has been shaped through a citizen advisory process involving Downtown Lawrence Inc., East Lawrence neighborhood representatives, local business owners and other stakeholders.

Fork & Tumbler said the restaurant itself is ending on Ninth Street, but catering and private chef services will continue. That leaves one more short window for a restaurant that became part of the neighborhood in less than two years, and another reminder that even necessary infrastructure work can carry real economic costs for the businesses caught in its path.