{"id":403106,"date":"2026-08-11T01:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403106\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T01:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:42:13","slug":"tex-mex-chain-swoops-into-ex-houston-whataburger-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/403106\/","title":{"rendered":"Tex-Mex chain swoops into ex-Houston Whataburger location"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many months now,\u00a0the old Whataburger property<\/a> at the Southwest Freeway Service Road near Edloe Street in Houston has sat bleached and empty like a discarded hermit crab shell. But no more it seems. A new restaurant with an entirely different cuisine is shuffling into the fast-food chain’s<\/a> discarded location.<\/p>\n

Laredo restaurant chain Taco Palenque filed a permit with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation on Aug. 3 for the old Whataburger at 3797 Southwest Freeway. The project calls for a $1.2 million-ish renovation and alteration of the existing 2,975-square-foot building. Construction is slated to begin Sept. 1 and finish by Feb. 15 of next year.<\/p>\n

That particular Whataburger had been around for 30 years, according to Houston Historic Retail<\/a>. It was pretty dependable for a late night or early morning sortie. There’s another by Shepherd Drive and Farnham Street that I would frequent during college, but when the lines got too long, you could occasionally rely on the Southwest Freeway location as a backup.<\/p>\n

The Whataburger eventually closed around the same time a new location was announced just up the block, closer to Wesleyan Street. The company decided to rebuild a brand-new location at 3929 Southwest Freeway, the site of a former Fuddruckers<\/a>. In 2025, we bemoaned the demolition of the Fuddruckers.<\/p>\n

Taco Palenque is a Laredo-based restaurant chain with three locations already in the Houston area. Juan Francisco Ochoa founded the business in 1987, and today, it has around 50 locations in Texas and a few in Mexico. Ochoa is also credited with founding the El Pollo Loco chain of restaurants.<\/p>\n

We don’t know yet whether Taco Palenque will keep the signature A-frame-shaped exterior of the old-school Whataburger location. In Houston, there are more than a few restaurants that move in and simply paint over the orange while keeping the buildings intact. The older A-frame stands have seen the same usage but have attracted more than just restaurants. Texas Monthly reported<\/a> automotive shops, art stores and coffee shops have co-opted the spaces for their own designs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many months now,\u00a0the old Whataburger property at the Southwest Freeway Service Road near Edloe Street in Houston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1703,1704,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-403106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-chronfood","tag-chronstaff","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403106","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=403106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}