Steak restaurant leaving Texas days after closing Houston location

The unique East Coast steak restaurant that hit Texas two years ago is now fully removing itself from the Lone Star State. Medium Rare, which announced Sept. 3 that it was permanently closing its Houston location, turned around less than a week later and declared the end of its Dallas storefront.

“After two incredible years in Dallas, we’re sorry to share that this Sunday night will be our final service,” read the message posted Wednesday to Instagram. “To our Dallas community, thank you for welcoming us, sharing so many meals with us, and making Medium Rare part of your special moments.”

It was just two years ago that the small East Coast chain of Medium Rare came to Texas. The Washington, D.C.-based restaurant launched in Dallas-at 5631 Alta Ave. in the Lower Greenville section of the city-in May 2024. About six months later the Houston location opened (the Houston location closed Sept. 6).

Medium Rare, which also has locations in Arlington, Va.; Bethesda, Md.; Columbia, Md.; New York; Philadelphia; and Watertown, Mass., is a unique concept as it offers just one dinner item: a prix fixe meal starting with bread, then a green salad, and finishing off with steak frites. You get culotte steak sliced thin, presented with a batch of fries and the restaurant’s “secret sauce.” (The culotte is a cut of beef from the top sirloin, also known as the sirloin cap or the picanha. It features a generous layer of fat that renders down when cooking, contributing to the cut’s moist and beefy flavor.)

A cocktail at Medium Rare. The steak restaurant is closing its Dallas, Texas, location days after announcing the end of its storefront in Houston. (alex_staniloff/Courtesy of Medium Rare)

The restaurant also does brunch, but again, offers a prix fixe, though there are a few more customizable options including eggs benedict, French toast and sausage, and of course, steak and eggs. So, essentially, Medium Rare cuts through indecision and angles to be the restaurant you visit when you know you want steak.

Of course, both Dallas and Houston have their fair share of steakhouses and a deeply rooted culture of cattle ranching and beef eating. This may make it difficult for an out-of-state brand-and particularly with such a tight concept-to succeed initially, but as of this moment Medium Rare has not given a reason for its Texas exit. The brand has yet to respond to Chron’s request for comment.

Instead, as of right now, Medium Rare’s last word in Texas, and in Dallas, is the same last word it gave in its Houston announcement: “It’s not goodbye. It’s goodbye for now.”

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This article originally published at Steak restaurant leaving Texas days after closing Houston location.