Wonder goes to Texas
A conversation about 2am steaks (and other business things) with Wonder North America CEO Tony Hoggett
Wonder, the restaurant / virtual food hall / multi-unit chain that evolved from a startup that made dinner inside tricked-out Mercedes Sprinter vans, is now running over 100 locations in multiple Northeastern states. Recently, the brand, which has raised over $1 billion in funding, announced big expansion plans in Texas, far from its New York roots in both distance and my restaurant success metric of choice: vibes.
Wonder’s first brick-and-mortar store launched in Manhattan, but its future is decidedly more suburban. In fact, suburban stores are the chain’s top performers, Wonder North America CEO Tony Hoggett told me in a recent interview. With up to 30 restaurant brands under one roof and a host of proprietary kitchen tech to cook it, it’s offering customers novelty and quality and meals delivered free and fast — or picked up conveniently on the way home.
Considering this, Texas is an obvious candidate for expansion.
“The Texas triangle has 23 million customers — Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin and Houston — strong and growing suburbs, high car volume,” Hoggett said. People are ordering more food for delivery and pickup, he added, and population and earnings are growing.
“Our offer just isn’t reliant on high foot volume — meaning that’s the vast minority of our business,” Hoggett said. “The majority of our business is delivery and pickup, which really plays to the suburbs.”
It’s a good narrative for the brand, which faced scrutiny as it expanded in New York. In a January report, Bloomberg Joshua Brustein staked out an uptown Manhattan Wonder location during lunchtime. “During my hour there,” he reported, “Wonder completed 26 orders, including mine.” That’s… fine performance for a tiny restaurant, but Wonder’s premise relies on size, scale, and speed to succeed. Its tech-fueled kitchens are built to pump out meals; recent investments in robotics — like the $187 million it spent buying Sweetgreen’s salad bot last year — are meant to make it all move even faster.
“[Wonder is] slightly more systematized than a typical restaurant, which makes it look a lot more like a grocery store,” Wonder founder and CEO Marc Lore told me shortly after Hoggett joined the company. “The kitchen looks more like a micro-fulfillment center than it does a kitchen.”
Lore said Hoggett’s experience leading Amazon’s grocery business, which he did until he joined Wonder as chief operating officer in late 2024, aligns “really, really well” with the job at Wonder.
I caught up with Hoggett a couple of weeks ago, shortly after the company announced its plans for the Lone Star State, including stores in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio metropolitan areas.. Here’s what he has to say about Wonder’s brave new (sprawling) market and what it means for the future of the company.
Per usual, our conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. This time, I included our opening pleasantries because I thought I stumbled on the real reason Wonder chose Texas.