Powerhouse Restaurant Team’s Ambitious New Houston Restaurant Closes After Less than a Year

Another one bites the dust. Just one month after the revelation that acclaimed Houston restaurant Triniti would shutter for good, another high profile H-Town establishment is closing. After less than one year in business, upscale Italian restaurant Arthur Ave will permanently close its doors this month.

Hoping that lightning would strike twice, the team behind the James Beard Award-nominated restaurant Helen Greek Food and Wine opened Arthur Ave in August of 2016, channeling the Italian immigrant spirit via upscale digs in The Heights.

The menu of refined Italian-American specialties such as spaghetti and hearty meatballs tossed in red sauce, chicken parm, and pizza pies, was initially met with popularity, but it’s clear that spark quickly fizzled.

The team behind Arthur Ave cited a “consistent pattern of underperforming sales over the last few months” in announcing the shuttering.

The Heights’ burgeoning restaurant scene gave Arthur Ave plenty of neighborhood competition and emerged as a barrier for the new concept. The Heights is now home to a bevy of popular restaurants — everything from chef Travis Lenig’s new restaurant Field & Tides to Italian-American favorite Coltivare.

“We’re closing with a lot of takeaways from this experience. We learned some things that worked and some things that didn’t. In the end, our goal is to create a place people love where they can get really good food and wine and receive A-plus level service,” sommelier Evan Turner says. 

Turner and chef WIlliam Wright will utilize the lessons they’ve learned to transform the Arthur Ave space into a second iteration of the acclaimed Helen, with the original continuing to operate in Rice Village. Helen in the Heights will be manned by Turner and Wright as well as chef de cuisine Mercedes Gomez and director of operations Tim Faiola and is expected to open later this year. 

Until then, you can snag your last meal as well as half-price wine bottles at Arthur Ave until Sunday, March 19 at 1111 Studewood Street.