Lubbock business news includes 3 closures, one opening, mushrooms and more

Hello A-J readers!

This week got busy, quickly. Over the week, we had three business closures, one opening, an interesting farming feature, along with the monthly report on businesses in June.

The unexpected closures of Joe's Crab Shack, 5802 West Loop, South 289, and The Fresh American, 3715 114th St., surprised the community.

The Fresh American just recently celebrated its 1-year anniversary on June 21 prior to a chain lock being seen at the entrance. Joe's Crab Shack's company had previously filed for bankruptcy in 2017. Urban Vibez Nutrition, 1110 Ave. J, #B, also closed on July 3.

More: Lubbock's Fresh American suddenly closes, another restaurant will honor gift cards

The week's opening restaurant was Hawaiian Bros Island Grill on July 1 at 5501 Slide Road. The long-awaited Hawaiian-inspired restaurant opened at what once was the location of Fuddruckers.

Our photo editor, Annie Rice, and I also visited two area farms as part of an ongoing project. The first part of that project, which will include reporting from Mateo Rosiles as well, had the owner of E3 Farms talk to us about how he "learned to speak plant" through Google when he was 14. A short 8 years later, Ethan Carter is a known farming innovator.

And, he has some fun quotes you will definitely want to read, including this one on how he learned to grow a mansion worth of mushrooms:

“All this stuff, I learned off of YouTube and trying to figure out how to grow stuff,” Carter said. “Most of this came from a retired Air Force engineer in El Paso who is passionate about mushrooms. Then the other big farm I learned from is in Arizona. With the technology we have today, we can grow where we want if we have enough air conditioning.”

Going into next week, several of my colleagues and I are planning the next team review on some sweet businesses for a national food holiday. People will also get to learn about a unique farm to market business outside of Idalou. As with most weeks, other news will likely pop up, so stay tuned.

As always, thank you for reading and supporting the A-J.

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock business news includes 3 closures, one opening, mushrooms and more