• by Teresa Buyikian , December 8, 2023

The upcoming holidays may have slowed new menu additions, but new store locations are going full steam ahead. Here are this week’s openings.

Cafe Rio Mexican Grill is opening its 52nd Utah store next week in Salt Lake City, bringing the chain to close to 170 locations. Specializing in sweet pork, the Mexican fast casual chain primarily operates in the West, with additional locations in the D.C. area.

Dave’s Hot Chicken has secured a new location in Greensboro, North Carolina. The new outlet is the fourth in the Los Angeles-based chain’s 12-unit development deal for Charlotte, North Carolina and the surrounding regions.

Hawaiian Bros. is opening two new Texas locations this month, one in Tyler and the other in Midland.

Slice House by Tony Gemignani, “where artisan pizza meets fast casual dining,” has announced a 20-unit franchise deal that covers the greater Dallas Fort-Worth region, with the first locations opening in 2024.

Smoothie King has signed a multiunit development agreement to bring three new stores to both Las Vegas and Chicago. The chain has added 93 new U.S. locations since August of this year, with a total of over 1,400 units globally.

Urban Plates, a fast-casual healthy food purveyor, has announced its newest location in Fountain Valley, California. The clean food chain uses sustainably sourced seafood and meats, as well as "organic all the time" produce.

White Castle has opened its second restaurant in Arizona, this one in Tempe.

Zaxby’s announced the expansion of its Midwest footprint with the opening of three new locations in Vincennes, Indiana; Henderson, Kentucky; and Madisonville, Kentucky. The Georgia-based chicken chain now has over 900 locations across the South and Midwest.