Walk-On’s Bistreaux and Bar executives are breathing a sigh of relief that none of their restaurants or employees in Texas have been impacted by Hurricane Harvey. The rapidly growing restaurant company currently has three franchise locations in the state—San Antonio, Lubbock and Tyler. Those areas were largely spared the effects of the killer storm.
“San Antonio got a little wind and rain but we’ve been pretty fortunate,” says Walk-On’s founder and co-owner Brandon Landry.
But Walk-On’s franchisees have more than 10 new Walk-On’s locations planned for the Greater Houston market over the next few years, and the catastrophic flooding in that region may cause company officials to rethink where some of those restaurants will be located.
“We’re in the middle of real estate development, picking out sites right now, and we may have to re-evaluate some of them,” Landry says. “We were on the one-yard line on a couple of sites, so we’ll just have to see how they fared. I know firsthand what happened here last year: The landscape becomes a little different. So we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Texas has been a successful expansion state for Walk-On’s, which currently has four company- and 10 franchise-owned restaurants across the south and several more under construction. In Texas alone, three restaurants are open, a fourth will open later this year in Dallas and a fifth is scheduled to break ground in Beaumont before the end of the year—not including the 10 locations planned for the Houston area.
Because of the devastation from the storm, it’s too soon to say when the first Houston site may get under construction, Landry says. But for now, company officials are focused on figuring out what Walk-On’s can do to be a good neighbor and help those in Texas who are suffering from the storm.
“We just had a meeting about that this morning—how we can use our footprint over there to help the people of Houston,” Landry says. “I know whatever we do, Drew will be a part of that.”
New Orleans Saints Quarterback Drew Brees has been a part owner of Walk-On’s since 2015 and is the public face of the chain.
In addition to the nearly 20 restaurants open or under construction, Walk-On’s has sold 100 franchises over past year, including recent sales that will bring the chain to south Florida and to the Carolinas. Landry says the company is also in talks with a franchise group that would bring Walk-On’s to the Midwest.
—Stephanie Riegel
