A handful of Texas-based restaurant chains are breaking through the rough economy in the unlikeliest of places: burgers.
Technomic, a food and foodservice consultancy and research firm, revealed beef-between-two-buns sales have slowed nationwide in the past year. Restaurant Business, which is owned by Technomic, reported the problem is two-fold: Beef prices are up, and so is the demand for chicken.
Outside of McDonald’s and a handful of other national chains, older brands are having a hard time of it. According to a chart showing four-year growth rates, Jack-in-the-Box, White Castle, Hardee’s, Steak ‘n Shake and several others have posted near-zero to negative numbers.
Conversely, Texas restaurants posted positive growth. That included:
P. Terry’s has been expanding steadily since 2020, first in New Braunfels and then later pushing into San Marcos, San Antonio and the Greater Houston area. The Austin-based fast food chain’s next location at 4815 Katy Fwy. will be the chain’s first inner-Loop location.
And speaking of Austin chains, Hopdoddy has been continuing its push into Texas’ major metropolitan suburbs, including Richmond and Stafford in the Greater Houston area. In an interview with Restaurant Business in February, Hopdoddy CEO Jeff Chandler said the chain ended 2025 with traffic growth just under 1 percent, a win in his book.
Looking across the nation, the two big winners of the report were Shake Shack and Culver’s. The former might come as a surprise to some in the Houston area given the closures that happened last year, but Shack Shack posted a strong earnings report in February (and a new Shake Shack just opened in Meyerland). Fiscal year revenue grew 15 percent and the company opened 85 new restaurants.
Culver’s, which is still private, is continuing to expand in the Greater Houston area as it banks on both the drive-thru and dining room experience. Restaurant Dive reported the chain’s average unit volume, or the average sales across each of its locations, is around $4.2 million. That puts it around Shack Shack’s performance and well ahead of longer-lived chains like Wendy’s and Jack in the Box, which hover at just under $2 million.
