A fast-growing Chicago-style pizza chain out of the Houston suburbs is staking a claim in North San Antonio, with plans to build a 2,702-square-foot pizzeria inside the new Stone Oak Mercantile retail center at 20135 Stone Oak Parkway. Crust Pizza Co. has filed state plans for the buildout, and the project marks the chain's third foray into the San Antonio metro area in less than a year.
According to CultureMap San Antonio, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings for the Stone Oak site listed interior work scheduled for completion in May 2025, though broader research into the surrounding development shows finish-out targets for the project shifting from mid-2025 into 2026. Crust Pizza Co. is a fast-casual chain based in The Woodlands, and it previewed the Stone Oak outpost after making its area debut in Cibolo. The Stone Oak restaurant will be run locally by Derek Campbell, Nathan Robbins, and Jay Tompkins, the same trio spearheading the brand's broader Texas expansion.
A Cluster Strategy Built Around Growth Corridors
Campbell, Robbins, and Tompkins signed a multi-unit agreement to bring three Crust Pizza Co. locations to the San Antonio metro area, targeting Cibolo, Stone Oak, and Boerne, according to the San Antonio Current. The chain made its San Antonio-area debut in late 2025 at 813 Cibolo Valley Drive in Cibolo's Buffalo Heights retail center, and before that, established a regional presence in Comal County with a restaurant at 2955 Town Center Drive in New Braunfels. Together, the three sites map a deliberate push through the fast-growing suburban ring between Austin and San Antonio.
Crust Pizza Co. traces its roots to 2011, when childhood friends Clint Price and Mark Rasberry opened the first location in the Panther Creek neighborhood of The Woodlands, according to Community Impact. The pair didn't begin franchising the concept until 2018, but growth has accelerated sharply since. Under CEO Carl Comeaux, the chain had expanded to 37 open locations across Texas and Louisiana by mid-2026, with a stated goal of adding 25 new stores per year across the Southeast, per 1851 Franchise.
What's on the Menu, and Why the Crust Matters
Crust Pizza Co. specializes in Chicago-style, cracker-thin pizzas, a distinction the chain leans on heavily as it competes for attention in a Texas market more accustomed to deep-dish comparisons or Neapolitan-style pies. The dough is prepared in-house multiple times daily using organic olive oil, and whole-block proprietary mozzarella is shredded on-site every day, according to details reported by 1851 Franchise. The menu spans pepperoni, Margherita, Hawaiian, Buffalo Chicken, and the signature Big Don's pizza, alongside stuffed and cauliflower crust options.
Beyond pizza, the Stone Oak location's menu will also include blackened chicken pasta, tomato basil soup, and baked macaroni and cheese, plus wings, meatballs, and pepperoni rolls. The chain's unit-level economics have drawn franchisee interest nationally: locations open for at least a full year generated an average unit volume of $1,640,211 in 2022, according to franchise disclosure documentation cited by 1851 Franchise.
Stone Oak Mercantile's Growing Dining Lineup
The pizzeria's home base, Stone Oak Mercantile, is a two-story, 57,325-square-foot retail and dining center built by Fulcrum Development at an estimated $6.4 million shell construction cost, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Fulcrum has pointed to heavy traffic counts to justify the site, reporting more than 11,000 vehicles per day on Stone Oak Parkway and roughly 18,000 vehicles daily on nearby Canyon Golf Road.
Crust won't be dining alone. The development is also bringing in a 3,750-square-foot Paris Baguette bakery cafe with a $750,000 build-out, plus a Black Rock Coffee drive-thru, filling out a mix of morning, midday, and evening dining options. Hoodline previously covered Paris Baguette's Stone Oak arrival, part of the same wave of new dining investment reshaping the corridor alongside other recent openings in the area.
Crust Pizza Co.'s San Antonio-area march follows a similar playbook the chain has used elsewhere in Texas, including a planned debut in Bastrop's Sendero retail development that Hoodline reported on earlier this year. The chain's history in the region stretches back further still, with an earlier expansion into the Greater Houston market. For now, the Stone Oak site remains under construction, with no confirmed public opening date beyond the shifting regulatory finish-out targets tracked in state filings.
