After 24 successful years in Davenport, the popular restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse will open a Moline location, in May 2027.
Moline Mayor Sangeetha Rayapati, city officials, and restaurant and development leaders met Wednesday morning for a groundbreaking at the construction site at 3620 38th Ave. (north of John Deere Road), Moline.
Joey Holst, a 22-year-employee who will be Moline’s managing partner, said he couldn’t explain what took the 33-year-old chain so long to build an Illinois Quad-Cities location.
“We're just waiting, waiting to get over here,” he said, noting the consistent demand in Davenport (4005 E. 53rd St.) partly drove the urgency to open a second QC restaurant.
“We just got a little too busy over there. You know, it's a lot of people. We probably have a good 2,000 walkaways over there a week,” Holst said of people who won’t wait to get a table. “So I think it was time to build somewhere else.”
The Texas Roadhouse in Davenport averages serving 10,000 to 12,000 customers a week, Holst said.
He started as a busboy and worked his way up to senior kitchen manager, and will be the restaurant manager in Moline, to employ 200 people.
Holst attributed much of the restaurant success in the Quad Cities to its community outreach and supporting local charities.
“Just our partnership with the community is just great, and we love giving back,” he said. “So I think that's what's getting them to come back is, we're really involved with the community. And I plan to do the same thing over here as well.”
Schools, car dealerships and veterans groups are key recipients of Texas Roadhouse support, Holst said.
Typically, the chain doesn’t open locations this close together. The Davenport and Moline locations will be about 14 minutes away, and currently, the closest Texas Roadhouses are in Coralville (an hour west) and East Peoria (85 minutes east).
The hours will be the same: 3 to 10 p.m. Monday to Wednesday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday to Saturday, and 11 to 10 p.m. Sundays.
Texas Roadhouse recently opened its Bubba’s 33 restaurant farther east on 53rd in Davenport, at 4741 E. 53rd, which opens at 11 a.m. seven days a week.
“It’s a sister company and we actually promoted four of our managers out of Davenport to go over to Bubba's 33,” Holst said. “We have the same core values and everything with Bubba's 33, so it's going to run the same for the most part, just different food.”
Bubba’s focuses more on burgers and pizzas, while Texas Roadhouse specializes in steaks, he noted.
Matt Johnson, Texas Roadhouse market partner in Davenport (for the past 20 years), said the Moline project will cost $8 million, and feature a larger parking lot (225 spaces) than Davenport (160), mainly because the city-owned property is larger. The Moline restaurant will have seating for 360.
“It is a big site for Texas Roadhouse,” Johnson said. “Usually, we build on about 2 acres, and this is a 3+ acre lot. So, I mean, we took total advantage of it. We had to make sure that it was nice and big so that the guests have plenty of spots in there. Easy in and easy out too.”
It’s taken a while to build in Moline, since developers had a hard time finding a suitable site, he noted.
“At one point we were looking at the Menards site down there, but Menards wants a lot of money for their sites, and I didn't like it,” Johnson said of property farther east down John Deere Road. “I like this because it's right off the interstate. "
“This is a really good site. It's a little crazy. I guess I'm the only one crazy enough to believe that it can work, but I know the people of the Quad Cities love Texas Roadhouse, and I know they'll find a way to make it happen,” he added.
“Texas Roadhouse is a Quad Cities kind of restaurant,” Johnson said. “That’s why this restaurant, the Davenport one, is one of the top 10 in the whole company. We have 700, and it's just— it's because the Quad Cities loves it.”
“We do charity work with the veterans and the police officers and the fire department and everything like that,” he said. “Man, Quad Cities loves us and we love the Quad Cities. Joey's held out just for this site. He's had a few offers come his way and he turned them down because he wanted the Quad Cities.”
The company is opening 25 to 30 new locations a year, with a new one in Mattoon, Ill., outside Champaign.
Founded in 1993, Texas Roadhouse has grown to more than 700 locations in 49 states (all but Hawaii) and nearly 40 international locations in 10 foreign countries. Texas Roadhouse is famous for its Hand-Cut Steaks, Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs, Made-From-Scratch Sides, and Fresh-Baked Bread.
Its locations average 7,000 guests per week; serving a total of 736,000 meals per day. The average Texas Roadhouse is 7,500-8,000 square feet and seats 300 guests. They offer 12 varieties of “Legendary Margaritas” and the menu’s top seller is the 6-ounce USDA Choice Sirloin. Steaks account for 43% of the menu.
Building construction in Moline will start in late October, with a planned opening May 2, 2027, Holst said.
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