A California restaurant company has pulled out of Texas. Paul Martin's American Grill, which had locations in Dallas and Austin, has closed both permanently.

The chain sent out an email to customers announcing the closures, saying that they were executing the closures "with a heavy heart."

"This decision comes after painstaking discussions and deliberations due to the devastating effects of the pandemic and its impact on our local business and community," their notice said. "At this time, we are unable to operate given the challenges in the current landscape and those anticipated challenges yet to come."

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Co-founded by Paul Fleming (the "P.F." in P.F. Chang's), Paul Martin's opened in Dallas in 2015, the first location in Texas.

Located in Turtle Creek Village at Oak Lawn and Blackburn, it became an instant favorite for the Park Cities set, with PC swingles jamming up the bar. Its clubby, cliquey, elbow-rubbing atmosphere earned it a Tastemaker Awards nomination in 2018 for Best Neighborhood Restaurant.

The Austin location opened in 2016, in the hot Domain Northside district.

The chain's Houston's-like menu of American classics included smoked salmon with grilled crostini, spinach dip, calamari, oysters, grilled artichoke, butternut squash soup, kale Caesar, chimichurri steak, short ribs, cedar-plank salmon, brick chicken, prawns and linguini, and grilled polenta with seasonal vegetables.

Fleming and chef Brian Bennett said their goal was to partner with renowned vineyards, farmers, and purveyors to make food without hormones or antibiotics, and with remarkable hospitality.

Unfortunately, that hospitality did not extend to employees, some of whom said they were not informed of the closure, and found out only after seeing the email to customers shared. The email did include a nod to staff: "We are incredibly grateful to our team for their dedication, hospitality and professionalism throughout this crisis," it said.

The Dallas location had been temporarily closed since March. Their website's careers page still has job openings posted for the Dallas location for cooks, servers, and bartenders.

Three locations in California also closed: San Mateo, Mountain View, and Pasadena.

"We remain hopeful that we will be able to reopen some of these locations in the future," the email said.

The chain now has six locations remaining in California, in El Segundo, Irvine, Rancho Cucamonga, Roseville, and Westlake Village; and one in Scottsdale, Arizona.