Xperience Restaurant Group (XRG) is stepping into the Texas restaurant market for the first time, adding a concept outside its main focus in the process.
Cypress-based XRG, which counts a variety of casual and upscale Mexican chains to its name, recently announced the acquisition of two new dining concepts from Texas-based RM Restaurant Group: the four-location Rio Mambo Tex Mex y Mas and two-location The Rim.
Terms of the purchase were undisclosed. XRG’s restaurant portfolio count now totals 68 spots.
The two Texas additions bring the restaurant operator’s total portfolio to 11 brands, which includes El Torito, Laguna Beach’s Las Brisas, Sol Mexican Cocina and Solita Tacos & Margaritas.
Xperience spent 2022 overseeing a handful of new locations for the latter two restaurants, which were its prior acquisitions from 2019. This year, Sol will add two more spots on the east coast in New York City and Boston. California is its primary market.
‘Texas-Sized’ Dishes
The Texas deal marks the operator’s debut in the state, and a debut of a non-Mexican focused restaurant.
Rio Mambo has a Tex-Mex menu with a mix of both traditional meals and healthier options with four restaurants in Fort Worth, Colleyville, Burleson, and Weatherford. Dishes includes spinach enchiladas, brisket fajitas and boneless ribeye asada.
As a slight departure from its existing portfolio, The Rim features American cuisine with its “Texas-sized” dishes, homestyle-cooked entrees and a selection of craft brews. Its restaurants are in Fort Worth and Burleson.
RM Restaurant Group’s founder, Brent Johnson, will stay on as an Xperience restauranteur after 22 years of running the firm.
Johnson considers Xperience a good fit to continue building out the concepts and “the right partners to keep the restaurants thriving,” he said in a statement.
“We look forward to continuing the rich legacy of the Rio Mambo and The Rim restaurants, and remaining highly engaged members of the communities in which they operate,” Chief Executive Randy Sharpe said.
“We are thrilled to expand into a new market we have been eyeing for some time,” Sharpe wrote to the Business Journal. “We will continue to grow nationwide with two more locations of our existing brands and one new concept this year.”
100 Location Goal
Xperience expected 2022 systemwide sales to reach $250 million, officials said last year. The operator ranked No. 14 on the Business Journal’s list of local restaurant chains last May with an estimated $160 million in systemwide sales for 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2021.
In the next few years, Sharpe aims to have 100 restaurants under Xperience’s belt.
