Hot Retailer Alert: Snap Kitchen

Continuing its steady growth, Snap Kitchen opened a store in the Shops at Houston Center—the brand’s seventh Houston location and its second Downtown. Snap Kitchen CEO/founder Martin Berson (here with his family) tells us the company has been updating its look the last four years, but the Houston Center location (pictured below, he calls it a “high-profile, really beautiful store”) represents how it’ll look going forward. Martin says he wants his growth to be thoughtful and he doesn’t have a target number of stores; rather, he’s got a list of submarkets he wants to enter.

Snap Kitchen is starting to expand outside the urban core—Martin’s got a store opening in the Heights in November, and then he’s turning his gaze west. He tells us his core customer is moving that way, and he’s got his eye on Memorial Village, Town & Country, and Katy/Cinco Ranch in particular. He’s also looking north—Martin says The Woodlands alone could support multiple Snap Kitchens, and he hopes to open his first store there by Q1 ’15. He’s also looking into the Vintage and Spring. Martin tells us the locations can vary from 400 SF to 1,800 SF, but its sweet spot is 1,200 SF: He wants stores to be fun, warm, and compact.

Snap Kitchen is growing in other ways, too. Martin tells us much of its food is prepared at the commissary at Kirby and Richmond. As the brand expands, he’s started to vet a larger facility for kitchen services. Snap Kitchen is also expanding outside of Houston and Austin; it opened its first Dallas location last month (Martin says he expects to reach five stores there this year) and is actively looking to enter Chicago.