Southwest Charlotte diners will no longer need to drive to Concord or Gastonia for a rack of ribs and free rolls. Texas Roadhouse is opening its newest restaurant at 13425 Rigsby Road in the Steele Creek area on November 9, bringing a 7,900-square-foot steakhouse and 220 new jobs to a corner of Mecklenburg County that has never had one of its own.
The Steele Creek opening was first reported by WBTV, which noted construction on the site began last year and that Texas Roadhouse already operates locations in Matthews, Concord, Gastonia, Hickory, Salisbury, and Rock Hill. Until now, residents in the city's southwest corridor had to travel to those outer locations, since no Texas Roadhouse sat directly in southwest Mecklenburg County, according to a Facebook post detailing the chain's regional footprint. The Concord location across from Concord Mills Mall and the Gastonia restaurant had long served as the closest options for northern and western Mecklenburg County residents, per the same account.
The lease behind the new restaurant was brokered well before construction crews arrived. Real estate firm Katz & Associates announced in November 2025 that broker Julie Gardner represented Texas Roadhouse in securing four signed leases across the Carolinas, including the Steele Creek site, with landlord representation handled by Tommy Trimble of Foundry Commercial. That deal was part of a broader multi-site Carolinas push that also included locations in Durham and Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and Indian Land, South Carolina.
A Border-Region Building Spree
The Steele Creek restaurant is not an isolated bet. It is part of a broader border-region expansion around Charlotte that also includes a planned Texas Roadhouse at the ParkStone development in Indian Land, South Carolina, along U.S. Highway 521 near the state line, according to reporting from viewcharlotte.com. Indian Land has seen significant commercial retail momentum since a regional Costco anchor opened there, the outlet reported.
That kind of suburban targeting tracks with where the people are going. The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro added more than 278,000 residents between 2020 and 2025 and is still adding roughly 135 net new residents per day in 2026, according to demographic data cited by Citadel Cofield, which pegged the region fifth nationwide for total numeric metro population growth between mid-2024 and mid-2025. That growth has made suburban corridors in southwest Mecklenburg County and northern South Carolina prime targets for national dining chains chasing rooftops.
Tight Real Estate, Big Paychecks
Finding room for a standalone restaurant in Charlotte right now is not easy. Single-tenant retail vacancy in the metro stood at just 2.7 percent in mid-2026, among the lowest rates in the country, according to a market report from Marcus & Millichap, which pointed to tight absorption for standalone restaurant sites in fast-growing outer-ring neighborhoods. Landing a 7,900-square-foot pad in that environment required the kind of early lease commitment Katz & Associates brokered nearly a year before the doors open.
For job seekers, the payoff is concrete. Job postings for the Steele Creek location show hourly starting wages between $14 and $16 for administrative staff and local marketers, and $15 to $18 for prep cooks and meat cutters, according to listings reviewed on Indeed. The postings also mention benefits including tuition reimbursement and health coverage, positioning the chain as what it calls a people-first employer with internal career advancement paths.
A Chain Riding a Growth Streak
The Steele Creek restaurant lands amid a company-wide expansion streak. Systemwide, Texas Roadhouse operated 832 restaurants across 49 states, one U.S. territory, and 10 foreign countries as of June 30, 2026, made up of 755 core Texas Roadhouse locations, 59 Bubba's 33 sports bars, and 18 Jaggers fast-casual outlets, per company figures reported by Pulse 2.0. The system grew by 35 locations between mid-2025 and mid-2026 through new store builds and select domestic franchise buybacks, the outlet noted.
New locations are also performing well out of the gate. Texas Roadhouse restaurants open less than six months generated average weekly sales of $180,822 during the second quarter of 2026, a 10.4% increase over new-store averages from the same period a year earlier, outpacing the growth rate of mature comparable stores, per the same Pulse 2.0 report. Across the full brand portfolio, average unit volume topped $8.4 million annually, or more than $166,000 per week per store.
Those numbers sit on top of a strong year for the company overall. Texas Roadhouse, Inc. generated $5.88 billion in total revenue in fiscal 2025, a 9.4% annual increase, extending its streak of same-store sales growth to 60 consecutive quarters excluding 2020, according to figures from the company's fourth-quarter 2025 results. Full-year same-store sales rose 4.9%, backed by a 2.8% increase in guest traffic across all three corporate concepts. Corporate management has set a target of opening approximately 35 company-operated restaurants in 2026 while also expanding the rollout of handheld order-entry tablets for servers systemwide, according to Restaurant Business, which noted the chain historically capped annual store growth around 30 units before ramping up as Bubba's 33 and Jaggers expanded.
When the Steele Creek location opens on November 9, it will bring the chain's familiar wide-ranging menu and complimentary rolls with cinnamon butter to a part of Charlotte that has waited years for one nearby. Texas Roadhouse has also indicated plans to open another Charlotte-area restaurant, though details on that follow-up location have not yet been announced.
