I don't think you know Houston all that well. The **** the kiddies think has "chic" will be torn down in 20 years and replaced with something else.
More like 20 days. The trendy, $25-burger places don't deliver better quality or service than the mom-and-pops, and their prices are much higher. Their only advantage is that they're new and, well, trendy. But trend-following crowds are fickle, and the chic $25-burger place of today becomes an out-of-style forgotten restaurant tomorrow that can't survive when nobody wants to buy their overpriced food any more. The sad part is that as they arrive and leave, they're supplanting the mom-and-pops in the process.
Aren't most of these $25/burger places family owned as well? They are just run by a younger demographic. The issue with a lot of older places is that they don't innovate their menu and tend to have few to no healthy options. That is important for today's consumer.
Don't know if they're family-owned, but their target client is a trendy, wasteful, young, single person, not a family. Mom and dad don't wanna spend $100 taking their kids to get burgers. And although it's nice to have a new item on a menu, it's also nice to have an old-reliable restaurant that's consistent.
Looks Like We're adding a local legend to the fray. While it was Temporily closed due to this ****, their voicemail says their property is up for sale. A literal institution since 1959.
The #6 will live on in my memories... we used to eat there all the time when I worked at a nearby hospital. Greeeezy and oh so good. It's what a burger place should be to me. Damn your In-and-Out, Whataburger, and whatever-trendy-aioli-arugula-goat cheese-spawn-of-Satan-burger-place may be...
Question! Where are these places that you're trying to spend $25 on a hamburger? Because you actually have to try to spend that much for a burger.
If a husband and wife take their three kids to Hopdoddy, order burgers (non-fancy), fries (small), and cokes (fountain), with no dessert or extras, their cost is gonna be $85, and that's not even one of the fancier places to get a burger from. (my math: Hopdoddy's Classic burger with cheese is 8.75; small fries is 3; fountain soda is 2; x5 people; tax is 5.67; tip of 15% is 10.30)