Food & Beverage

Urban Bird expands Texas footprint, signs franchise deals in Q3

Photo: Brett Hondow/Shutterstock

October 22, 2026

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Urban Bird Hot Chicken expanded its Texas footprint and signed franchise development agreements during the third quarter while introducing new programs to support restaurant operations and growth.

The Houston-based brand strengthened its presence in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. It also signed development agreements for three restaurants in Wichita, Kansas, and two in Houston.

Urban Bird plans to continue opening company-owned restaurants in select Texas markets while pursuing franchise opportunities with qualified multiunit operators. Target markets include Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and additional Texas locations. The company also is exploring international expansion.

To support growth, Urban Bird is standardizing restaurant opening procedures, including planning, staffing, training and certification. It also introduced Urban Bird University, a training and operations program for employees and franchise partners.

The company also established a Brand Standards Review process with expanded restaurant evaluations and audits focused on accountability, food quality and guest experience.

Other initiatives include expanded management training, competency-based certifications, annual general manager recertification plans and enhanced performance management systems. Improved financial reporting, restaurant-level budgets and operating scorecards are designed to give field leaders better insight into restaurant performance.

"Our longer-term ambition is to build Urban Bird into a nationally recognized restaurant brand with a meaningful international presence," the company's CEO said in a press release.

"That said, we do not view growth simply as a race to open restaurants. Our objective is to build a business that can scale successfully while protecting the quality of the food, the guest experience, the economics of the restaurants and the integrity of the brand."

Founded in 2020, Urban Bird has more than 28 company-owned restaurants and continues to expand through franchising.