the tide is out
Struggling Spring Branch seafood restaurant quietly shutters
Low Tide has closed.
The Spring Branch restaurant scene may be booming, but the rising tide hasn’t lifted all boats equally. One of the neighborhood’s seafood restaurants quietly closed last weekend after less than two years in business.
Low Tide Kitchen & Bar has served its last meal. Over the weekend, the restaurant announced on Facebook that its last day of service would be Sunday, June 2.
“Thank you to our regular guests who have become friends and anyone who has eaten with us. We've decided Sunday will be our last day of service,” the note reads. Later, it continues, “We are working steadily to have our staff join other restaurant teams...if you are a restaurant looking for amazing people, please reach out.”
Houston restauranteur Alli Jarrett opened Low Tide in August 2022. Originally a stand a downtown food hall Finn Hall, Low Tide served a Carolina-inspired mix of seafood that included fried fish and shellfish, shrimp and grits, surf and turf, and sandwiches that included a shrimp po’ boy, blackened catfish, and burgers. Raw bar selections included oysters from both the East and Gulf coasts as well as a Carolina-style Low Country shrimp boil, and a kids' menu made the restaurant family friendly.
It should have been a winning formula, but the restaurant struggled to find an audience. Jarret had to combat false reports on social media that the restaurant closed in April, Chron.com reported.
“We just aren’t getting the traffic that we thought we would,” Jarrett said to the website. “When you’re already challenged, it doesn’t help when people think you’re closed.”
Low Tide isn’t the only restaurant Jarrett has closed this year. In March, she shuttered her Southern-inspired Heights restaurant Harold’s after 10 years. The space reopened in May as Blue Tuba, a restaurant that blends European and Texan culinary traditions.
