Popular national steakhouse restaurant chain to replace Turlock’s old HomeTown Buffet
Say goodbye all-you-can-eat buffets and hello to steaks the size of Texas in Turlock.
The city’s old Hometown Buffet, which closed permanently during the pandemic, will find new life as a popular national steakhouse chain plans to open in its place.
Plans filed to the city of Turlock Planning Division show the old 9,000-square-foot building on Countryside Drive that housed the buffet chain will be demolished. Then a new Texas Roadhouse restaurant will be constructed in its place.
The national chain is known for its steaks, Southwest cuisine and free peanuts served in buckets at your table. Despite its name, the chain was founded in Indiana in 1993 and now runs its headquarters from Louisville, Ky. In 2002, the company partnered with country music legend Willie Nelson, who still promotes the brand.
The new Texas Roadhouse will be the second site for the chain in Stanislaus County. In 2013, the company launched a location on Sisk Road in Modesto in the former space of the Hungry Hunter restaurant. The northwest Modesto restaurant has been a popular draw, with lines sometimes out the door. The next closest location is in Tracy.
The new Turlock Texas Roadhouse site will be an 8,300-square-foot structure built in the restaurant’s signature rustic style. The large building will have capacity for some 420 guests. Twenty to 30 employees will be hired to staff the full-service restaurant.
According to planning documents, work on the new structure is set to begin at the end of January, with eyes on completion by June. The new steakhouse, on the west side of Countryside Drive between Fulkerth and Tuolumne roads, will share a retail complex with existing Applebee’s and IHOP restaurants.
Demolition of the old HomeTown Buffet building, which was built in 2000, is slated for mid-January. The Turlock site was the last location in the region for the once powerhouse national buffet chain that at its peak had more than 250 across the country.
But in 2018, the Modesto HomeTown Buffet abruptly closed after nearly 25 years in business. And before that in 2016, the chain’s Merced location was shuttered.
The HomeTown Buffet and its parent companies have filed for bankruptcy a number of times in the past decade. The pandemic and its associated safety shutdowns have hastened its demise.
The Turlock location was closed in 2020, and initially was listed as “Reopening Soon” on the company website. A sign on its doors still reads “temporarily closed.” But this year, the brand’s parent company permanently closed all of its remaining locations as part of ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
