Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts Closes Its Doors

A name change couldn’t save a Heights destination for crispy fried chicken: Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts at 601 Heights Boulevard closed yesterday, March 9. The restaurant was previously known as Lee’s Fried Chicken and Donuts, until it was scooped up in August 2018 by The Pit Room owner Michael Sambrooks’s restaurant company, Sambrooks Management Company, who switched its name from Lee’s to Sam’s.

Lawsuits alleged that the previous owner, Cherry Pie Hospitality, sold off the fried chicken spot and its other restaurants in a fire sale without paying debts it owed first. Sambrooks Management Company also acquired Starfish (now 1751 Sea and Bar) and Pi Pizza in the transaction.

Now Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts is going the way of Pi Pizza, which the company shuttered two weeks ago. Michael Sambrooks said in a press release:

Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts was a fun concept with tasty and Instagram worthy fare. With our recent closing of Pi Pizza, and now the closing of Sam’s, we are fully focused on our “Big Four” concepts – The Pit Room BBQ, The Patio at The Pit Room, 1751 Sea and Bar, and Candente. Several of our Sam’s employees are moving to our other concepts and we wish the best to those talented folks that are going off to other opportunities.

Sambrooks Management Company won’t put any other restaurant in the space occupied by Sam’s, choosing to put all its energies into those four eateries.

• New Owners Give Lee’s Fried Chicken and Donuts A Slightly Different Name [EHOU]
• Where To Eat Houston’s Finest Fried Chicken [EHOU]
• Sam’s Fried Chicken and Donuts [Official Site]