What Mama Wants

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Fast-casual Asian food concept Mama Fu's is looking expand dramatically. To figure out where it's going, you need to know the secret phrase.

Mama Fu CEO Randy Murphy (between chairman Mark Adams and COO Steve McManus) coined the phrase “one off the end cap” term to describe how it's looking at leasing. The restaurant had been searching for end cap 3,000 SF spaces in strong retail centers, but those are hard to find because of significant growth in fast casual dining, he says. Plus, about 50% of their customers prefer take-out or delivery, so it made sense to look at a smaller footprint (about 1,500 SF) and eliminate much of the dining space. The new smaller concept will be tagged Mama Fu's Take Out and Delivery.

Randy says there's plenty of 1,500 SF spaces available just one off the end-cap. Those bring "lower cost per/SF at build-out and we're able to keep that visibility and name recognition, especially in new markets." (Plus our child sources reveal that first is the worst, and second is the best. And third is usually a spa that waxes hairy chests.) He tells us the first opening will be Austin in mid-March in the HEB North Hills project at Braker Lane and Jollyville. The second will follow in Rochester, Minn., in April. The new concept will feature only fast-casual dining, which reduces utility and labor costs, too.

Mama Fu's opened seven franchises last year, and Randy is looking to maintain that pace. The restaurants are about a 50/50 split between franchise and corporate stores, which are spread mostly across Texas, but also in Florida and North Carolina. On the radar: the Midwest, with at least 10 more corporate stores opening around the greater Austin area and many more in Texas and its neighbors.

San Antonio Botanical Garden
Goes to the Birds

Does this count as multifamily development? The San Antonio Botanical Garden is gearing up installation of its “epic birdhouse” exhibit. It'll feature human-sized birdhouses (they average 12 feet) designed through an AIA competition. The Garden's Candace Andrews and Sasha Kodet showed us the winning selections, which include the Eco Echo Dome, designed by PBK and Journey Construction and incorporating birdsong. Another favorite is Susan Ohlhaber's Egg Nest, which features hay bales and pictures of birds that have gone extinct.

Candace and Sasha with the other judges: Garden executive director Bob Brackman, Leslie Komet Ausburn, Aline Yoldi, and Rafael Bedolla. This group culled from 16 entries down to six winners. The structures will open March 29, and were built with the following (and more) in mind: how the structures relate to garden and plants, sustainability, and (very important since the birdhouses will be up for three months) weather-resistance and kid-proofability.

Here's Sasha with Overland Partners' winning Purple Martin Gourd entry. The Botanical Garden has major changes underway. It's City-owned, but becoming private, and a capital campaign is up and running to implement a master plan for its 38 acres. Candace tells us it took over two decades to acquire eight acres adjacent to the Garden. Now landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck is leading the master plan, which includes a new entry, event center, classrooms, outdoor kitchen pavilion, edible garden, and family adventure garden. This year, the team will move utility lines along Funston and realign/straighten Old Austin Road.

Lone Star Court Opens
Valencia Group's new hotel in Austin's The Domain is open. Sales manager Katelyn Martin showed us around Lone Star Court, including the lovely Water Trough Restaurant pictured here. The 123-key property has a retro/rustic Americana feel and is oh-so-Austin, down to the food trucks that'll set up on the property. (One is owned and operated by Valencia Group, and the other offering will rotate.)		Katelyn hopes the real draw will be the outdoor courtyard area (under construction when we stopped by earlier this month) with a 1,600 SF covered pavilion, and campfire area. The idea is to get residents having fun out of their rooms. (Better than starting fires in their rooms.) Three buildings of guest rooms are already open; the final one opens any day now. RTKL Associates is lead architect, and Lauren Rottet and Christy Ten Eyck round out the design team.

What Mama Wants

San Antonio Botanical Garden Goes to the Birds

Lone Star Court Opens

San Antonio Botanical Garden
Goes to the Birds