What's been your steepest learning curve? To open up restaurants there - you might as well open something in Vegas. That fell through due to the ridiculous prices in The Woodlands. NK: We had created more of a concept that's closer to what we're doing now to open in The Woodlands. So Nathan was just bartending one day and was like, "hey, let's open an awesome restaurant downtown, so - let's do it"?ĮE: We talked about creating concepts all the time.
EE: Nathan was our bartender/mixologist and we just realized that we had the same ideas and concepts and thought it would be a great partnership. Logistically in the back, it was a nightmare trying to handle the two. So essentially we went from a 75/25 ratio of people ordering rodizio/a la carte and the next month it was less, and then it was less, and less and less?until it got down to virtually nothing and people were raving about the a la carte dishes. And then we had to keep adding a la carte options because we had a good portion of people ordering it. Really good options for people wanting seafood and things like that. NK: Originally, when we opened we had the rodizio and just a few a la carte options. When did you make the switch from rodizio to just a regular menu? Once you tell people that they can eat what they want, they're going to stay for 10 hours. We thought, "oh yeah, people will love that." EE: Laughing in the background. So, in our minds (because we're incredibly familiar with the concept), it's one of those things: you sit down, you eat a really great meal and you go. Her and her husband owned Guri do Sol in The Woodlands, so very strong experience with that. NK: We had this shiny, bright-eyed view of the world of being, "oh, we're in the theater district, they have a really big issue of getting people in and out quickly for meals," so we had experience doing rodizio, which is the meat service, Brazilian steakhouse-style.
I know you've been through a lot of changes, can you go through the evolution of your first year? So I guess the 23rd is realistically the day. NK: August 23rd was the day we opened, September 7th was the grand opening party. Owners Nathan Ketcham and Estella Erdmann reminisce about their naiveté in choosing a location to open in the heart of downtown, explain why the rodizio just didn't work out and tell us what they're most excited about for year number two. There's still plenty of land grazing animals (as well as fish and fowl) featured on Samba's menu, but just not in the traditional rodizio-style as it began a year ago. Samba Grille started out as a Brazilian steakhouse but has outgrown what co-owner Nathan Ketcham refers to as an "identity crisis," blossoming into a critically acclaimed darling of the upscale dining world. Welcome to One Year In, a feature in which Eater sits down for a chat with the chefs and owners of restaurants celebrating their one year anniversary (plus or minus a few months).Įstella Erdmann and Nathan Ketcham in the Samba dining room.
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