The new shopping center on Valley Mills Drive is taking shape, to the extend that I discovered today that it has a parking lot. I guess that's probably been the case for a little while now, but because I knew SmashBurger and Mama Fu's will be arriving in the spring, I've put inspecting the progress over there on the back burner.
However, on Thursday, they came up to the front burner for a little bit as I stopped by and discovered, as stated, a parking lot. So there's that.
Previous to my drive-by, I spoke with SmashBurger regional manager Brad Brown this week. He's busy opening stores in New Braunfels, Austin and Waco in the first half of this year while keeping the wheels turning at the Temple location.
"I'll be either gray-haired or bald by June, but it's been fun," Brown said.
If you're in Temple, do yourself a favor and stop by for a SmashBurger preview. I've dined there several times since it opened early last year. It's not just another burger joint.
Brown is hearing positive buzz all over Temple.
"Anytime someone sees my SmashBurger shirt they'll be like, 'I love that place,' or 'I've heard it's great and I need to get over there,'" Brown said. "This time next year we're looking forward to hearing the same things in Waco and Austin and New Braunfels."
SmashBurger hopes to begin building out its Waco store at the end of March and opening a month to six weeks later. We'll be checking with Mama Fu's to find out their schedule, but it's likely going to be similar.
As for Aldi, which by the way is a grocery and not a restaurant but we'll keep you updated anyway, they're looking at opening by the end of February. Someone from Aldi gave me that info this morning, but the person asked me not to quote them directly. So that's me paraphrasing.
And a heads up, Aldi is hiring. The sign in the window said they're paying $20 per hour for managers and $10.75 per hour for clerks and such with full benefits.
