After Careful Review, Whiskey Cake Comes to Houston

Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar is an urban farm-to-table restaurant.

HOUSTON— Parkside Capital bought the land in Verde Parc in January 2014 from Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group and immediately set about master planning a first-class business park with a mix of development options, including a conference center and corporate campus. Dallas-based Front Burner Restaurants LP purchased a hotly pursued site at the gateway to the 120-acre Verde Parc and adjacent to Katy Grand Station on the city’s western tier. Within the site, the first Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar to be located in Greater Houston is poised to begin build operations, with the 8,500-square-foot restaurant slated to open in the fall. The restaurant will be situated on a 2.5-acre tract fronting Interstate 10, with access from Grand Circle Boulevard. Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar is an urban farm-to-table restaurant with an exhibition kitchen and large central bar in an industrial weathered design. Citivarese Morgan Architecture of Dallas designed Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar for Front Burner. “They have been reviewing the market for two years in search of the right location,” says Hugh Ruggles , vice president of NewQuest Properties and the deal’s sole broker. “They were trying to emulate the demographics of their other locations.” Whiskey Cake’s first location opened in 2010 in Plano, TX, and it is up and running in the affluent suburbs of northwest San Antonio and northwest Oklahoma City. It has five brands in its portfolio. Ruggles tells GlobeSt.com: “After its success in San Antonio, Plano and Oklahoma City, Whiskey Cake Kitchen & Bar chose Houston for its newest location. Houston is ready for Whiskey Cake and there is really no competition for its type of concept. We chose the location not only because of the already dense population, but also because of the continued expansion of the city to the west. Being close to the intersection of IH-10 and the Grand Parkway makes it convenient for customers to visit from all directions. Everyone I talked with have expressed their excitement that this unique restaurant will be opening in Houston soon.” The seller of record, Parkside NEC Grand Parkway/I-10 Ltd ., was equally selective in its choice of buyers. “The Moody family was being very careful as to who they’d sell that tract to. Whiskey Cake’s success and reputation sealed the deal,” says Ruggles. Verde Parc has direct access to Interstate 10 and the recently opened Grand Parkway, a multi-tiered, diamond-shaped intersection just 30 miles from Houston’s central business district, one mile from Katy’s CBD and six miles from the energy corridor. The surrounding area is a myriad of large single-family developments, including Cinco Ranch, Cypress-Fairbanks and Firethorne . “Whiskey Cake was focused on finding a strong location in West Houston to tap into the high growth. It was an incredible opportunity to be able to buy this site,” Ruggles says. The 280-mile Grand Parkway is projected to fundamentally alter the region as it crosses through seven counties to create a third outer loop around Houston. In Greater West Houston, there are currently more than 1.6 million residents and 500,000 jobs, but that’s expected to climb to 2.8 million residents and 930,000 jobs by 2050. Whiskey Cake’s two-mile trade area has an average annual household income of $92,771 and a median age of 35. The site neighbors a 1.5-acre restaurant tract and 19-screen Cinemark in Katy Grand Square and a 900-space Park ‘n Ride lot.  Already open in NewQuest’s 21-acre retail project are La Madeleine, JCPenney, Slim Chicken and Red Robin Gourmet Burgers & Brews . Whiskey Cake specializes in heritage and hand-crafted recipes, offering specialties of green tomatoes and deviled eggs along with a namesake dessert, whiskey cake. The bar is stocked with 24 craft beers, 100 small batch bourbons, whiskeys, scotch and 30 varieties of wine.