Memorial restaurant boom continues

Twin burger and taco restaurants coming to Memorial City area in 2025

rendering of the burger joint and the taco stand in memorial

The Burger Joint and The Taco Stand are coming to the Memorial/Spring Branch area in 2025.

Courtesy of The Burger Joint

Two of Houston’s favorite casual dining spots are making their way to Memorial in spring/summer 2025. Co-founders Shawn Bermudez and chef Matthew Pak celebrated The Burger Joint’s ninth anniversary this week by announcing its expansion to the Memorial/Spring Branch area, alongside its sister restaurant, The Taco Stand. Construction is already underway at 1016 Gessner Road, with Cisneros Design Studio Architects leading the project.

“It is amazing to think how far we have come in just nine years. We are so grateful to our Houston fans for embracing our concepts,” Pak said in a statement. “Our team is excited to bring our brand of burgers and tacos to the Memorial area of Houston.”

What started as a humble food truck in April 2015 quickly grew into one of Houston’s most beloved burger spots. Just seven months after its launch, The Burger Joint moved into its first brick-and-mortar location in Montrose. Fast-forward nine years, and the Memorial restaurant will be the brand’s sixth Houston location, joining Montrose, the Heights, University of Houston, Baybrook, and the soon-to-open Kirby outpost.

At 4,300 square feet, the new Memorial location will feature a full bar and a spacious 1,500-square-foot patio. Guests will be able to dine daily from 11 am to midnight, enjoying the restaurant's take on classic American burgers that includes favorites such as the Smoke Stack ($12.99), which is topped with pulled pork, mac and cheese, and a fried egg, as well as the boozy 8th Wonder Rocket Fuel Shake ($8.99), made with the local brewery’s cold brew coffee porter.

Next door, The Taco Stand will offer a 2,000-square-foot space including a 1,100-square-foot patio, with dine-in and drive-thru available daily from 6 am to midnight. Known for its street-style tacos, the menu features housemade corn and flour tortillas filled with barbacoa, vegan beef, fish, and more. The Taco Stand also offers burritos, quesadillas, and bowls. For breakfast, there will be taco staples such as chorizo and potato ($3.29), migas ($3.49) and nopales and egg ($3.49).

Since opening its first location in the Heights in 2021, The Taco Stand has rapidly expanded to Webster, the University of Houston, and the soon-to-open Montrose location.

Bermudez and Pak have more projects in the works beyond The Taco Stand in Montrose and The Burger Joint in Kirby. The duo has two new concepts slated to open in the Heights: Happy Go Lucky will serve Hawaiian-style shaved ice and frozen cocktails, while The Pizza Place will feature housemade pizzas, pasta, salads, and gelato. Bermudez also owns the space-themed Roswell’s Saloon and the tequila-focused Pistolero’s.

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Fact Check

Houston restaurant's viral sign demanding tips is an AI-generated fake

AI-generated image tipping sign restaurant

Photo via Reddit

An AI-generated image about tipping waitstaff went viral in Houston, claiming to have been spotted at the Rice Village location of Torchy's Tacos.

New restaurant rage bait just dropped for Houstonians, and this time the culprit is an AI-generated image of a sign requesting patrons tip 20 percent.

The sign reads: “Dear Guests, Your server is not a volunteer. Service fees are not tips. Please compensate accordingly.” A simple math equation breaks down a hypothetical $100 restaurant bill, claiming the server would earn only $2.13, which is the tipped minimum wage that most servers receive from their employers. To add insult to injury, the line “If you can’t afford to tip, you can’t afford to dine out” appears below.

The image caught the attention of Houston diners after it was shared on a local subreddit claiming it had been spotted at the Rice Village location of Torchy's Tacos, drawing more than 2,700 comments. Local radio station 93Q Country later posted the image to its Facebook page Monday morning, where it had generated more than 700 comments as of this article's publication.

“The image circulating online is AI-generated and is not affiliated whatsoever with Torchy’s Tacos,” a representative for Torchy’s tells CultureMap. “At Torchy’s Tacos, tipping is never mandated or required. While appreciated, gratuities are completely optional and always at the guest’s discretion.”

In an era when nearly everything online deserves a little skepticism, it helps to know the red flags before deciding how angry to become at something that's circulating on social media.

Here’s why anyone should view the image with extreme skepticism:

A quick Google search showed versions of the image circulating online for weeks, with people claiming to have seen it at restaurants across the country
The image does not resemble the Rice Village location of Torchy’s
Counter-service restaurants like Torchy’s do not typically expect customers to tip 20 percent

Still, the post sparked plenty of real conversations surrounding tipping culture, including:

Whether restaurants should pay servers more
Whether counter-service restaurants should expect 20 percent tips
Whether tipping should be based on service quality or the total cost of a meal

We’re not going to wade into the tipping debate at this time. But AI-generated rage bait like this can still be harmful to Houston’s restaurant industry, especially when false claims spread faster than corrections. Before assuming something online is real, it’s worth pausing long enough to verify it first.

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