Dive Brief:
- White Castle plans to open its first restaurant in Texas in 2026, the company said in a press release.
- The brand held a special event on Thursday at the location where it will open its first Texas store next summer. The restaurant will be located near the Grandscape, a mall in The Colony, a city north of Dallas, next summer.
- White Castle, which owns 335 units and is primarily concentrated in the Midwest, where it was founded, has been entering new states in the past few years, opening its third Arizona restaurant last year, and it began construction of its second standalone location in Florida in April.
Dive Insight:
White Castle’s new locations tend to drive significant interest from consumers. Its first Florida location in Orlando, which opened in 2021, set a single-day sales record and sold roughly 5 million sliders in its first year, according to The Orlando Sentinel. The company also operates an off-premise-only location nearby. The chain’s first Arizona location had a line of more than 200 people on its grand opening day in 2019.
In addition to its slow but steady geographical expansion, the chain updated its menu with new Crispy Chicken Sliders in June, marking its first permanent premium item in three years. It also has a steady slate of popular limited-time offerings including Shrimp Nibblers, French Toast Sliders and different flavors of Chicken Rings. The chain turned to new technologies, including bot delivery, drive-thru voice automation and back-of-house robotic fry cooks, to bolster the guest and employee experience.
White Castle isn’t the only regional QSR expanding beyond its regional roots. California brand In-n-Out plans to open its first Nashville, Tennessee, restaurant next year and has plans to open its first New Mexico restaurant in 2027. Meanwhile, a number of Southern chicken brands are targeting the Southwest and Northeast for growth.