Whataburger Announces Plans to Expand to Missouri, Tennessee, and Kansas

Update: August 12, 2021.

It's recently been announced that the first Whataburger location in Kansas City will open at some point next year in 2022, and the location will be at 152 N. Booth Ave. and 400 NW Barry Road. After the first, there will be 30 new Whataburger restaurants opened from Wichita to St. Joseph over the next seven years, the majority being in the Kansas City area. We'll be the first to update you when we know more!

Update: April 28, 2021

Patrick Mahomes is one happy guy! Today Whataburger and the Kansas City Royals announced that a Whataburger food truck is coming to Kauffman Stadium this summer.

"There's a lot of excitement surrounding our partnership with the Kansas City Royals and many opportunities ahead for us to surprise fans at the ballpark," Whataburger said in a statement. "You never know when you might see the Whataburger Food Truck roll into town! Stay tuned for what we have in store."

Update: August 7, 2020

Whataburger is coming to Kansas! In an anniversary statement, the lone star state fast-food burger chain announced that it will be expanding into three new states in 2021. Joining Missouri and Tenessee (which were announced earlier) is the great state of Kanas.

The original article continues below:

It's a good day to be a Kansas Citian! Today, San Antonio-based fast food chain Whataburger confirmed that the company is "examining the Kansas City market for its next phase of expansion". Looks like Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is finally going to get his Whataburger fix.

Whataburger Confirms Plans to Expand in Kansas City and Tennessee

James Turcotte, senior vice president of real estate for the San Antonio-based burger chain shared that the expansion is a perfect fit. "It fits our customer profile. It fits our supply networks, and we think that those markets are a good fit for us and that they line up with what we do here in Texas." The company plans on franchising restaurants, a move they have not done since the early 2000s.

"Franchising allows us to open more stores in more areas and do that faster and efficiently," Turcotte said. "That is certainly a component of our plan. As we've always done, we will continue to open a high number of corporate restaurants."

Patrick Mahomes' Wish is Coming True

Before he was a Superbowl MVP, you could find Patrick Mahomes in the Tyler area and Lubbock enjoying Whataburger. The NFL star reached out to the Texas fast food brand on social media, in a tweet in 2018, asking them to bring the Texan store to the Kansas City community.

Now two years later a 3,751-square-foot freestanding Whataburger building is being proposed for Douglas Street and St. Luke's Boulevard in Lee's Summit, just outside Kansas City according to the Kansas City Star. The Whataburger team has met with the city about the project, however, there are no specific plans at the time of writing.

Whataburger released the following statement: "We are excited to hear we have so many fans in the Kansas City community, and we have been exploring this area. At this time, we have no specific plans to announce a restaurant but will be happy to share when — and if — the time is right."

 

 

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This post was originally published on August 7, 2020.