{"id":258079,"date":"2026-04-20T16:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258079\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T16:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T16:38:07","slug":"burgerchan-expands-its-customizable-burgers-to-the-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/258079\/","title":{"rendered":"Burgerchan expands its customizable burgers to the Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"One<\/p>\n

One of Burgerchan’s burgers. The brand is expanding to the Heights.<\/p>\n

Rochelle Abante of Abante Photography<\/p>\n

Burgerchan will soon grill its customizable burgers<\/a> in the Heights.<\/p>\n

Diane and Willet Feng debuted the popular burger joint in 2016 in\u00a0Greenway Plaza as Kuma Burgers before rebranding, closing and relocating to the Galleria area. Their restaurant became a fixture on the Chronicle’s Top 100 Restaurants<\/a> and list\u00a0of best Houston-area\u00a0burgers<\/a>. Now, new co-owners Roveen Abante and Ryan Stewart will open an offshoot at 506 Yale St., Suite\u00a0E. They\u2019re aiming to launch in early-to-mid May, and will announce their final opening date later on social media.<\/p>\n

MORE OPENINGS:\u00a0From Italian sandwiches to Vietnamese coffee, these 11 Houston restaurants launched in March<\/a><\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Stewart said he took over the Galleria restaurant from the Fengs about a year ago. When he and Abante met a month and a half ago, they quickly gelled and decided to work together on expanding. The Fengs, meanwhile, are planning a move to Taipei.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill and Diane built a great concept,\u201d Abante said. \u201cWe want to keep that vision intact. We don’t want to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A\"Fries<\/p>\n

Left: A patty on the grill at Burgerchan. Right: Fries.<\/p>\n

Top: A patty on the grill at Burgerchan. Bottom: Fries.<\/p>\n

Burgerchan built a name around the number of options on its menu. Customers choose how many patties they want; how big the patties should be; which of four cheeses should go on top; and whether they\u2019d like sourdough, rye, brioche or lettuce buns. Then they add toppings like spam, kimchi relish and charred jalapenos.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s too overwhelming, diners can also order among chef-curated options. There\u2019s a mushroom-swiss. The \u201cSpicy!!!\u201d A signature double-patty burger with brioche, thousand island dressing, lettuce and tomato.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

The food menu at the new location will stay the same, Abante and Stewart said. But where the Galleria-area spot primarily serves beer and wine, the Heights outpost will offer a fleshed-out spirit and cocktail program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abante said he\u2019d be focusing on umami-laden drinks to pair with the burgers. Drawing on the brand\u2019s Japanese-style name, he\u2019ll offer yuzu-flavored and sake-based drinks, plus a selection of Japanese beers.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A chef adds cheese to the patties at Burgerchan.<\/p>\n

Rochelle Abante of Abante Photography<\/p>\n

To pick the location, Stewart ran a poll on social media, asking fans of the restaurant where they\u2019d like to see a new Burgerchan. The Heights came up on top, he said. The store ended up taking over the building of recently-closed Filipino restaurant Be More Pacific, of which Abante was a part-owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Abante didn\u2019t want Burgerchan to look just like the former restaurant, so he and Stewart planned extensive re-decorations. The 3,000-square-foot space \u2014 and 900-square-foot, two-level patio \u2014 will soon be brightly colored with red, green, blue and touches of gray. The walls will display custom wallpaper inspired by anime and Japanese graffiti.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Chicken arrives at least 12 ways at this new izakaya from the chefs behind sushi spots Neo, Kira<\/a><\/p>\n

Part of the purpose of this location is to create a blueprint for a \u201cmodern and scalable\u201d larger chain, Abante said. (Among other changes, they decided to take out the hyphen originally in the \u201cBurger-Chan\u201d name.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

And though the Heights restaurant has yet to open, Stewart is already scoping out a third location. He previously ran restaurants in South Africa, specializing in expanding them into bigger businesses, and he wants to do the same here.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s all about the brand,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cIt’s great to have single businesses that have unique concepts. But right now, I really do want to focus on a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Burgerchan’s burgers. The brand is expanding to the Heights. Rochelle Abante of Abante Photography Burgerchan will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-258079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}