In-N-Out Snubs Houston

In-N-Out Burger snubs Houston for yet another new Texas city: Why the fast food cult fears H-Town

California-based burger chain In-N-Out already has locations in Dallas and Austin with plans to expand to New Braunfels, but now it looks like another Texas city will soon know the joys of Neapolitan shakes and Animal-style burgers. But they aren't targeting Texas' largest city.

Following a complicated path through shell companies and corporate directors, the San Antonio Express News discovered that a new In-N-Out will be replacing a TGI Friday's in the Alamo City.

" If I had to guess, they've looked at the demographics and seen Houston is already flooded with burger chains."

Which led us to wonder (again) why hasn't the burger behemoth turned its eyes towards Houston? After all, the city is appropriately burger obsessed and rumors have swirled for years that In-N-Out will open here.

In-N-Out has certainly noticed Houston's fervid burger scene, having sent Chris Shepherd's seasonal restaurant Underbelly a cease and desist letter after it became aware of the "UB Double-Double," which In-N-Out alleged infringed on its trademark. Shepherd responded by renaming the offender as the "Cease and Desist burger," where it remains on both the Underbelly and Hay Merchant menus.

While we wait for In-N-Out to respond to questions about venturing into the Houston market, we turned to Hubcap Grill owner (and burger expert) Ricky Craig for his perspective on why the chain has avoided Houston.

"If I had to guess, they've looked at the demographics and seen Houston is already flooded with burger chains," Craig tells CultureMap. He cited the popularity of national chains like Five Guys and Smashburger as proof that Houstonians will embrace anyone with a good concept. Does that mean Houston is too intimidating for the foodie favorite?

"I don't think they're scared. Any location they open, people will wait for burgers. I just think they're being smart with their resources."

Craig says he's never tried the cult-classic burgers, but he'd "love to . . . I bet it's great."

Meanwhile, California transplants will have to content themselves with Hubcap, Becks Prime, Whataburger and all the rest of the local options.

Unless they're too snooty to appreciate them, that is.

Update: Shortly after this article was published, Carl Van Fleet, In-N-Out vice president for planning and development, provided CultureMap with the following statement:

We are pursuing a few projects in San Antonio (and another potential opportunity in New Braunfels as well) and we are very enthusiastic about the opportunities there. That said, it would be premature to comment on the status or timing of any of those projects, it is still pretty early in the process. Once we begin construction on a new restaurant it usually takes about 5 months before we are ready to open but a whole lot still has to happen before we’d be even close to starting construction on any of those potential sites.

As far as Houston is concerned, we do hope to be there in the future but we are not currently looking at any opportunities there.

For now, Houstonians will have to head to Austin or Dallas for a signature double-double with fries.

Photo courtesy of In-N-Out Burger

For now, Houstonians will have to head to Austin or Dallas for a signature double-double with fries.

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restaurant boom

Texas to lead nation in culinary job growth by 2032, report predicts

Photo by Lucas Law on Unsplash

With all the booming restaurant scenes in major cities like Houston, Texas' overall culinary industry will grow faster than the rest of the country within the next six years, Escoffier found.

A new analysis of the states that will have the most culinary industry job growth has revealed that Texas is expected to lead the nation with the fastest growth in the country by 2032.

The nationally recognized Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts' study, published December 30, 2025, compared all 50 states to determine their job prospects for chefs and head cooks, restaurant cooks, and food service managers based on three key metrics: projected growth rates from 2022-2032; "absolute job creation" (the total number of projected new positions) during the same 10-year span, and actual job growth rates from 2022-2024.

Texas' culinary industry is expected to grow by 24.88 percent by 2032, the report found, which is the highest projected growth rate nationwide. That translates to more than 52,000 culinary jobs created within the next six years.

Escoffier also broke down individual projections across all three metrics:

45,150 new restaurant cook jobs, a 39.72 percent increase
3,580 new chef and head cook jobs, a 19.76 percent increase
3,340 new food service manager jobs, a 15.17 percent increase

"The top three states alone — Texas, California, and Florida — will add nearly 130,000 culinary jobs, almost 45 percent of all jobs created in this industry (despite those states making up about 28 percent of the nation’s population)," the report said. "This demonstrates an extraordinary scale of opportunity for job seekers willing to relocate to states with booming restaurant scenes."

Major Texas cities, including Houston, are home to numerous highly esteemed award-winning chefs that are defining local restaurant scenes. And there are just as many up-and-coming chefs rising through the culinary pipeline.

As Escoffier notes, projections are just one factor among many that determine the strength of the national culinary industry. Texas' combined actual culinary job growth from 2022-2024 is down 0.28 percent when compared to expectations.

"This simply means that, over the past few years, the state appears to have underperformed growth projections; the industry still grew in that state, but perhaps not as much as anticipated," the report's author clarifies. "Given the short timeframe (2022-2024), this category plays a small role in our rankings relative to the ten-year projections."

Washington led the U.S. with the most new culinary jobs added from 2022-2024, with 5,800 positions created during that time. Escoffier said Washington handily beat expectations that only 1,300 jobs would be added, representing a 348 percent "overperformance."

The top 10 states with the fastest-growing culinary industry are:

No. 1 – Texas
No. 2 – California
No. 3 – Georgia
No. 4 – Florida
No. 5 – Washington
No. 6 – North Carolina
No. 7 – Utah
No. 8 – Arizona
No. 9 – Nevada
No. 10 – Alabama

texas culinary job market reports