Another steakhouse chain has exited a major market less than two years after opening its first location there, ending an expansion that had only recently begun.
The closure comes as several other restaurants in the surrounding area have also shut their doors in recent months.
Founded in 2011, Medium Rare is a Washington, D.C.- based steakhouse chain known for its fixed-price steak-and-fries offering. The restaurant has expanded from its D.C. roots into markets including Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, and New York.
Medium Rare closes only Houston restaurant
Medium Rare has closed its only location in Houston, Texas, at 3201 Louisiana St., nearly two years after opening, according to an announcement on the restaurant’s Instagram account.
“After two unforgettable years, we’re closing our doors in after dinner service this Sunday,” the restaurant said in the post.
“We can’t thank you enough for all the love and support.”
The Houston location opened in 2024, becoming Medium Rare’s first restaurant in the city, its second in Texas, and its eighth location overall at the time.
Medium Rare’s only remaining location in Texas is its Dallas restaurant at 5632 Alta Ave.
The restaurant has not issued a detailed public statement explaining the closure, and it remains unclear what will happen to the vacant space.
Recent nearby restaurant closures
The Medium Rare shutdown follows two other restaurant closures in the same neighborhood just weeks earlier.
Bōl Indian Kitchen and its next-door neighbor, Pok Pok Po Fried Chicken Parlour, both closed after operating for less than two years, according to CultureMap Houston.
Both concepts were created by Executive Chef Jassi Bindra, who won Food Network’s Chopped in 2023, and were operated by Kahani Social Group.
Neither business provided an exact reason for the closures. Kahani Social Group co-founder Surpreet Singh said the company was looking for opportunities to bring both concepts back in ways that would make them more convenient and accessible.
Several other restaurants and bars have also closed in Houston’s Midtown area in recent months, according to local reports, although the neighborhood continues to include businesses that have operated for decades.
Restaurant operators face ongoing challenges
Medium Rare has faced closures in other markets as it has expanded.
In 2024, the chain closed its restaurant at The Rotunda in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood less than a year after opening.
The location was initially closed temporarily before Medium Rare announced that the shutdown would be permanent.
Here’s some of my previous coverage of Houston restaurant closures:
- Fuzzy’s: Closed all of its remaining restaurants in the area.
- Pappasito’s Cantina: Permanently closed its original restaurant after 43 years.
- Landry’s Inc: Closed several restaurants across its brands in the area.
The restaurant was earning in a week what some other Medium Rare locations generated during a single brunch, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, WMAR2 News reported.
The closures come as restaurant operators across the country contend with higher operating costs, changing consumer spending habits, and increased competition.
For individual restaurants, those pressures can make it harder to remain open when sales do not generate enough revenue to cover labor, food, rent, and other operating expenses.
Restaurant prices have also continued to rise. Food away from home increased 3.4% over the 12 months ending July 2026, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
At the same time, consumers have become more selective about dining out as prices rise. Industry data from Circana showed restaurant traffic declined 0.3% in 2025 from the previous year, although traffic increased 0.5% in the fourth quarter.
The data point to an uneven environment for restaurant operators, with consumer demand varying across markets even as the industry continues to adjust to higher costs.
According to RestaurantData, approximately 8,171 restaurant closures were recorded across the U.S. and Canada during the first half of 2026.
Texas accounted for an estimated 1,039 of those closures, the highest total among the states and Canadian provinces tracked in the report. The figure represented 12.7% of the combined U.S. and Canadian total.
Despite the closures, Houston’s restaurant industry continues to evolve as operators adjust to changing consumer habits and rising costs.
“Houston’s restaurant scene is not dying,” said Strategic Marketing Consultant and Publisher Lisbet Newton on Houston City Beat.
“The city’s dining culture is restless and adaptive. But adaptation has a human cost, and right now, a lot of the people paying that cost are owners and workers who built institutions Houston genuinely loved.”
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