Fuddsdate: Three more Houston Fuddruckers are closed

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Howdy, folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today, we’re taking another moment for a “Fuddsdate,” first, I’d like to address the elephant in the room: no, Fuddruckers is not closing all its locations. That seems to be related to an incorrect TikTok that was spread around in the last couple of weeks. However, three Houston area Fudds have at least temporarily closed: Stafford, Copperfield, and Kingwood. It’s been quite a while since our last Fuddsdate, so let’s take a minute to debrief. Fuddruckers was sold off during Luby’s liquidation in 2021. The new owner worked on expanding the concept as best they could during COVID. Making it into Kroger’s ghost kitchen and pitching plans to open locations in mall food courts. However, things at the company-owned restaurants have been in what I would consider a declining state for the past couple of years. Product shortages, credit card acceptance issues, and a lack of operating soda fountains, which were a prevailing theme in 2023, have once again sprung up this summer. I will add that things at Fuddruckers seemed pretty stable for at least a few months around the holidays, so this may be temporary. However, the two temporary closures from last year do not look so temporary. These properties have been vacant for nearly a year now, and the Southwest Freeway location has been up for lease since at least August of last year. The Copperfield location had a lockout notice taped to the door, prompting a few readers to contact HHR. The Stafford location received a similar lockout notice at the end of March. As for Kingwood, I was tipped off by a curious reader, and while I could not find a lockout notice, I did confirm that the store was indeed closed and locked. In his response to the claim of closing stores, Fuddruckers CEO Nicholas Perkins said they plan on bringing in new franchisees soon. Hopefully, this is the outcome we will see because the corporate-operated restaurants are not operating at the level of franchised locations like Town & Country. There is still hope for the Fuddruckers brand, but in the meantime, their corporate stores are certainly run in a manner that indicates distress.

4 comments

  1. The new operators have tried to scam their way since the day they were able to buy it from the Luby’s camp. They defaulted on their agreements with Coke, hence no fountain drinks.

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  2. Right it is awful the cheese sauce is so watered down doesn’t even taste like cheese . Go somewhere else!

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  3. Fuddrucker’s hit its peak over a decade ago as one of many mid-priced “pop culture” chains (in the same genre as TGI Fridays, Ground Round, Flaky Jake’s, etc.). Although I ate there for the quality of the burgers, I have a feeling many people thought the life size Blues Brothers stature was a cultural icon to be worshiped. Like boom boxes and AOL, the allure of dining with Elvis or The Beatles watching over you faded into oblivion.

    Their food quality didn’t decline to the point it sucked; it just declined to the point of (as Jeff stated) it didn’t stand out. For the past few years, if I felt wealthy enough to drop $20 on a burger and fries, Becks Prime is now my go-to place. If you’ve never been to Becks, it blows away any burger Fuddrucker’s ever made in their history.

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  4. The Copperfield location has been on life support for years. I eat lunch in that area almost every weekday and the parking lot never has more than three or four cars in it. I stopped eating there even before the plandemic, when the food quality started dropping noticeably. Maybe they can find somebody to revive it under franchise, but I’m skeptical. The biggest problem with the location is that there are a half-dozen restaurants literally within a stone’s throw: Willie’s, French Quarter, Outback, McDonald’s, Jason’s, Cena’s… Okay, maybe you’d have to be a major league outfielder to hit the latter two with a rock, but you see my point: stiff competition. Also, Fudd is a one-trick pony. If you’re going to do that in today’s restaurant market, you have to really stand out in quality and dining experience or at the very least have a gimmicky hook. I’m afraid Fuddrucker’s is as much a part of the past as buggy whip manufacturers.

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