Chubby Cattle, the world’s first restaurant to “provide refrigerated conveyor belt-based hotpot meals,” currently has its sights set on a franchise expansion in two markets, Philadelphia and Dallas, according to co-founder Haibin Yang.
Yang tells What Now Philadelphia that while the city is certainly a target market for the expansion, the company is yet to find a location and didn’t have any further comment at the time.
Nevertheless, a new Chubby Cattle would bring the restaurant’s local portfolio to two, alongside its current outposts in Las Vegas and Denver, as well as its X Pot sister restaurants in Vegas and Chicago, and Los Angeles’ Wagyu House.
Similarly, according to Small Biz Trends, Chubby Cattle is also looking at the Dallas market, where they operated the now-shuttered Rolls by Chubby Cattle, for potential franchise opportunities.
Yang and business partner David Zhao – the former overseeing all culinary operations while Zhao handles the finances – opened their first Chubby Cattle in Las Vegas in 2016. According to the company’s official website, “Chubby Cattle was inspired by Mongolian, Tibetan, and Chinese philosophies of medicine and healing…we take pride in using ingredients that provide essential health benefits and savory tastes, [allowing] our soups to brew for eight hours to ensure a delectable experience for our fellow foodies.”
It’s doubtlessly a recipe and philosophy that works, having landed Yang and Zhao on Forbes’ 2022 30 Under 30 list, where the business media titan writes, “Through their restaurants Chubby Cattle and The X Pot, the pair are elevating traditional Chinese hot pot with technologies including robotic servers and bussers, as well as high-end laser projectors to project custom media for every dish onto customers’ tables.
Chubby Cattle’s existing Philadelphia outpost is located in Chinatown, at 146 N 10th St.
