Here comes Cheddar's; Irving-based eatery to open new location in Brownsville

Here comes Cheddar's; Irving-based eatery to open new location in Brownsville

February 10, 2010 9:46 AM

By STEVE CLARK, The Brownsville Herald

Cheddar’s Casual Café needn’t worry: Brownsville loves its chain restaurants.

Cheddar’s is bringing its all-American comfort food concept to the city, with construction under way on a site at Frontage Road and Charlie Clark Drive, and an opening set for spring.

Jim Weber, executive vice president of operations for the company, seemed to want to downplay the fact that the restaurant is, in fact, a chain — a dirty word in some markets, maybe, but certainly not here.

"We don’t think of ourselves as a chain," Weber told The Brownsville Herald. "We’re a simple company that is very focused on great, quality food. We’re not a big company with 400 or 500 locations. We’re not trying to be the biggest guy out there."

That’s good, since the Irving-based company, which started in 1978 with a single store in Arlington, has just 82 locations in 20 states, according to the company’s Web site. Thirty-five of those locations are in Texas. In contrast, Applebee’s, founded in 1980, has nearly 2,000 restaurants in all 50 states and 15 foreign countries.

"We don’t take too many chances," Weber says. "We’re a conservative Texas company. We’re mindful about our growth. We try to be as thoughtful as we can."

He says the company is "pretty selective" about which markets to enter. McAllen got its first Cheddar’s just over a year ago and that store has been very successful, Weber says, adding that the company is expecting similar success in Brownsville.

"We feel great about the Valley and southern Texas," he says. "We were very confident (about the decision to come to the Valley). We’re generally received very positively."

Each Cheddar’s location employs 154 people. Weber expects a flood of applications once the "now hiring" sign goes up, noting that Cheddar’s doesn’t have to do much in the way of advertising for employees. The company does no advertising at all, in fact.

"We don’t run TV ads," Weber says. "We don’t do any of that. We invest all that in our people and in our quality products."

He describes the restaurant as a "casual dinner house — a little more polished," with an emphasis on "quality food, fair price and great atmosphere."

The new Cheddar’s sits on a 1.8-acre outparcel — part of the land assembled by Coastal Realty, a local commercial real estate firm, for the construction of Lowe’s. Lowe’s is the big anchor for North Towne Plaza, as the development is called.

Coastal’s Mark Barnard says marketing of the outparcels to "junior anchors" started before the Lowe’s was finished, and Cheddar’s was the first one to bite.

"The outparcel users and junior anchors always follow the large anchors such as Lowe’s," he says. "Now that Cheddar’s is under construction, other restaurants will look more seriously at the North Towne project."

Surrounding Cheddar’s is a 3-acre parcel that would work for...

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