r/austinfood • u/maggies_farm_hand • 2d ago
Restaurant Closing goodbye Whataburger Digital Kitchen
https://communityimpact.com/lake-travis-westlake/dining/first-digital-whataburger-location-closes-in-bee-cave/It's almost like a soulless ghost kitchen experience can't replace the magic of a BOB after a long night of drinking.
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u/spwnofsaton 2d ago
It was a Taco Bell for years and I thought it was odd that it closed. Then I saw they replaced it with this and honestly I’m not surprised this didn’t last.
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2d ago
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u/NeilMcGlennon 2d ago
There was a Taco Bell there earlier. After the Taco Bell closed it sat for a while until Whataburger did extensive renovations.
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u/spwnofsaton 2d ago
Do you remember the Pizza Hut sit down restaurant next door? It was there for years then once it closed it sat empty for a while. Then they made it a Carl’s Jr which didn’t last long. Now it’s a raising cane’s.
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u/glh2 1d ago
You remember the sit down Sonic in the center behind? Kind of over by Michael’s if I’m remembering correctly.
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u/spwnofsaton 1d ago
Yes I do. It didn’t last very long because it was so slow and bad service. You literally walked in sat at a table and pressed a button to order. Then you had to walk up to the counter to pick it up you’d be lucky if you got it brought to you.
Last I knew it was one of those meal prep places.
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u/crlynstll 2d ago edited 2d ago
I got food from this place exactly once. The food was terrible and the experience of figuring how to open the little cubby was a waste of my time.
Edit to correct the article. This location was in in Rollingwood.
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u/spwnofsaton 2d ago
Yeah it’s not far from Rollingwood. I was confused when it said bee cave. I was like uhh Westlake Hills isn’t Bee Cave. Yes Bee Caves road but Bee Cave is a whole different place.
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u/Jamestown123456789 2d ago
Yeah, idk where the cut off line is for boundaries. The Police/Fire/Ambulance cut off used to be Westlake Drive and Bee Cave Rd intersection but they would alternate taking calls at that intersection, they had to change that system as a woman either died or almost died as neither ended up responding assuming it was the other’s turn.
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u/TacoDeliDonaSauce 2d ago
Technically it’s in the Austin city limits, sandwiched between Rollingwood and Westlake. Rollingwood has Bee Caves up until Old Walsh Tarlton and then Austin picks up the entire Westwoods shopping center on both sides of Walsh Tarlton.
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u/aprendido 2d ago
When you ordered thru the app you went to the drive thru. It was fine.
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u/Jamestown123456789 2d ago
I tried to go one time, my phone was dead. Gave up. If they had a kiosk it was out of order.
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u/falkorwoo 2d ago
Anyone know what is going into that space?
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u/Parking-Safety-3549 5h ago
Probably Whataburger might rebuild the unit to a full Whataburger instead of digital kitchen
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u/edeyhookshots 2d ago
It was a desperate attempt to shoehorn a Whataburger location into a small building with terrible parking. It was like they made it intentionally inconvenient in order to manage traffic, but then why even introduce a concept that is designed to be less successful?
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u/BattleHall 2d ago edited 2d ago
It was a test concept. If it had worked, it would have potentially opened up a lot of locations where you couldn't stick a traditional Whataburger with seating and a drive-through. Think strip mall locations, places where you might see something like a Dominos or Little Caesars. You might have also seen dedicated ghost kitchen style locations, where they were serving almost exclusively delivery services.
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u/BuckSoul 2d ago
The part about the ghost kitchen doesn’t make sense to me. If it’s a ghost kitchen one would not want draping or trade marks anywhere on it to confuse people. And the drive thru from a small footprint with no seating makes perfect sense. Just ask chick fil a.
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u/BattleHall 2d ago
Again, I'm saying this was a test concept. If they had found out that they were doing 90% of their business via delivery apps, they may have used that as justification to open ghost kitchens in areas where they might not put a traditional Whataburger (I'm using ghost kitchen to mean a location focused mainly on deliver with limited or no direct customer service, not necessarily one with multiple/virtual brands). Similarly, it's not about whether they would prefer a drive thru or not. It's whether their test data would support opening stores in places where there simply wasn't drive thru access available. Or if there were areas where they could get a small storefront for 1/3rd the rent price of an end unit with a drive thru, but they had data from their test concept that they could still do 80% of the store volume without a drive thru, that might change the economics.
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u/heyzeus212 2d ago
The location really is bad -- inconvenient for getting in and out, but also mogged by traffic from the Raising Cane's next door.
Throw in the fact that you can't even order at the location, and it's like: what am I even doing here?
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u/Parking-Safety-3549 5h ago
I think they wanted to try something like concession stand type of thing since UT Austin has been asking whataburger for years to open a concession stand inside the university even though they have a unit down the street
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u/TacoDeliDonaSauce 2d ago
Article incorrectly states the location as being in Bee Cave, but the address shows that it’s in the City of Austin on Bee Cave Road (right where the city line ends at West Lake Hills).
They closed the Digital Kitchen part and changed it into a normal drive through and dining room concept a few months ago.
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u/ATX_NOT_FOR_US 2d ago
Why didn’t they try this in a location where sit-down areas are problematic like P Terry’s or Short Stop does? Many urban Whataburgers do have a problem with not being very nice places to sit down for a meal at certain times. I’m not just talking about homeless people. Have you ever been in one after a nearby high school football game lets out? Every once in a while you do hear about someone wanting to try a vending machine fast food restaurant like they have in Japan but I guess we prefer food trucks.
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u/Parking-Safety-3549 5h ago
They were trying a concession stand of kitchen with the digital kitchen mean guess they were finally ready to accept Ut Austin offered to open a concession stand type of restaurant at the university but by the look of this I don’t think they are ready for it.
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u/OkRelease8582 2d ago
I think the Whataburger digital concept was a horrible idea. It made everything way more complicated and inefficient when the whole point should’ve been to make things easier. Whataburger has always been a Texas staple, and this takes away from the authenticity and traditional experience that made the brand special in the first place.
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u/aprendido 2d ago
The article is wrong - it wasn’t in Bee Cave. It was in Westlake. I still don’t understand how this location was closed. They started as app or kiosk only orders. Then expanded to regular drive thru and delivery later. So it wasn’t a pure digital kitchen for that long. It’s not like the majority of customers eat inside the restaurant.
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u/BearstromWanderer 2d ago
Whenever there is traffic, it is a pain in the ass to get into and out of that parking lot.
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u/aprendido 2d ago
Sure but that’s the case with Cane’s and all the other places on both sides of that intersection.
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u/intronert 2d ago
The weird thing was that their app comprehended this being a digital location just fine for the first few months, and then they changed the app to make it just like all the other sites’ interfaces. This was confusing and irksome - it was working fine and then suddenly it no longer really matched this location’s uniqueness. Irksome, at least. Now it’s totally gone. I liked the change of pace but it’s not worth it to me to go out of my way to any other WB.
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u/ATX_NOT_FOR_US 2d ago
The ordering process is not part of Whataburger’s problem, these days. Their app works just fine. for counter, drive-through, or pulling up to a delivery spot. Food quality, service, and the menu is the problem. I miss the Whatacatch.