Feeling like Fuddruckers?

I've always enjoyed a good Fuddruckers burger- slathered in Heinz 57 and with an obscene amount of pickles.

The concept is a brilliant one- top your burger however you like from the plethora of options to choose from. When I was a kid in the 90s, Fuddruckers was the place to get a burger.

It had everything: fun decor, decadent milkshakes, usually a couple of arcade games, and again- my precious pile of pickles.

However, in recent years, Fuddruckers has majorly scaled back to just a little over a third of the locations it had at its height.

Texas has the most locations, which makes sense as the company was founded in San Antonio in the late 70s. In a tragic twist of irony, San Antonio does not currently have a Fuddruckers.

And of the 13 remaining Texas locations, four are in the dubious state of "temporarily closed." Most locations cite a need for extended repairs as the reason they are not currently open.

So What Happened To Fuddruckers?

It has not been an easy few years for any restaurant. Even McDonalds had its struggles in the recent past. Consumers tightening their budgets, high supply costs, and more have been a "death by 1000 cuts" for many.

For Fuddruckers in particular, the beginning of the decline in stores began in 2010, as a way to reorganize after the financial crisis of 2008. More stores were lost in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some Fuddruckers are company owned, but most are franchises, meaning it's up to the individual owner to keep their location alive and (hopefully) thriving.

There is so much competition in the restaurant world, and so few consumer dollars to go around. However, Fuddruckers still has my heart- and I hope my piles of pickles have many more years to come.

Here's a look at every Fuddruckers left in Texas, including the "temporarily closed" ones.