Upgrading the environment while downgrading prices and bringing in a talented, respected chef was apparently not enough to save Sambrooks Management Company’s restaurant Andiron at 3201 Allen Parkway. The restaurant’s last day of business will be Saturday, March 1. Sambrooks Management Company, founded by Michael Sambrooks, also owns two locations of The Pit Room and Candente. 

Some aspects of Andiron closing are surprising and discouraging. For example, to take advantage of the spring weather, Sambrooks invested in creating a vast, verdant patio with a retractable roof. It surely would have been the site of many a reception, garden party or other event this year. 

Sambrooks initially opened Andiron as an upscale steakhouse with an ornate interior worth gabbing about just under two years ago in April 2023. It opened with executive chef Louis Maldonado of Michelin one-star restaurant Cortez in San Francisco. By the end of that year, Maldonado was gone and respected local chef Michael O’Connor was in. O’Connor has over a decade of experience at Vic & Anthony’s and spent nearly eight years of that time as executive chef, and followed that up with two years at James Beard Award-winning chef Justin Yu’s and Bobby Heugel’s gastropub Better Luck Tomorrow. 

In November of last year — just over three months ago — the restaurant was retitled “Andiron Grille & Patio” and a more casual menu was promised. I visited in December with friends, and admired how well O’Connor and his team were executing the food (especially having visited another restaurant focused on a similar menu of “American standards” of steaks, tartare, seared mushrooms, oysters and veggie sides that didn’t quite hit the mark). The decor was still as glamorous as it had been when Andiron initially opened. The retooled Andiron was on our Best New Restaurants of 2024 list, which was published in December. With this only being February, it’s hard for this closing to not feel abrupt, even though the restaurant in both incarnations has been open just two months shy of two years. 

A representative for Andiron declined to comment on whether O’Connor or any of the other staff are being retained in new roles or at other locations. If we receive additional information on that issue, we’ll update this article. 

Phaedra Cook

Phaedra Cook has written about Houston’s restaurant and bar scene since 2010. She was a regular contributor to My Table magazine (now closed) and was the lead restaurant critic for the Houston Press for two years, eventually being promoted to food editor. Cook founded Houston Food Finder in November 2016 and has been its editor and publisher ever since.