Analysis: The Inevitable Fall of Prince's Hamburgers

I had such high hopes for the reincarnation of the legendary Prince's Hamburgers. Since 1934, Prince's was a favorite in Houston for great burgers. Long before Whataburger was the hometown favorite, Prince's was the Golden Boy of local burgerphiles. But the Prince is dead — yet again. Sadly, it was predictable. 

As I wrote in January 2023: 

"By the time Whataburger started up in 1950, Prince's Hamburgers had already been in business for 14 years and was already legendary. Unlike Whataburger, Prince's is actually named after the man who founded the restaurant." 

Unlike Whataburger, which is thriving today and was acquired by a Chicago firm in 2019, Prince's Hamburgers nearly went extinct. "The last Prince's Hamburgers location in Houston has closed, a victim of Hurricane Harvey's massive flooding," the Houston Chronicle reported in 2018. "The location at 3425 Ella Boulevard was the last location standing."

But Prince's is not down yet. In fact, they seem poised for strong comeback, as you'll see in my video. 

However, flash forward to 2024 and the "last Prince's Hamburgers location" in Houston closed AGAIN on December 31, 2023. The location at the Sharpstown Park Golf Course has permanently shut its doors (6600 Harbor Town Drive). The sad demise of Prince's should come as no surprise to anybody who was watching closely. The phoenix is ashes once again.

Sure, they made a damned good burger, but did so much else wrong that failure was virtually pre-determined. With a bad location, no signage visible from a busy street, poor social media presence, no merchandise, no inside bathroom, a promised grand opening that never happened, and the City of Houston as their landlord, failure was Prince's destiny. Let's go down the list:

Poor Location, Bad Landlord

You might think that a public golf course is a great location for a restaurant. That depends on the golf course, of course. I'll bet a million dollars that the majority of golfers at Sharpstown ate before they arrived, or drove elsewhere to eat after their golf game. Public courses are government owned, and having the City of Houston as your landlord seems a bad idea. It's hard enough to sue your private sector landlord, and you know what they say about fighting City Hall. 

The golf course location had another disadvantage: Lack of visibility. Prince's had a sign at the entrance of the golf course on Harbor Drive, a quiet side street, but it was about 370 feet away from busy Bellaire Boulevard. Virtually invisible, therefore useless. Unless you lived in the immediate neighborhood or were coming to play golf, you might never see that sign. Visibility is extremely important to any retail business, particularly restaurants. Why do you think you never, NEVER see a McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Whataburger or any other burger restaurants on sleepy side streets? Because they want visibility, something the Prince's team with their "20 years of experience" failed to consider. And by the way, that experience is cumulative among the five partners, averaging only four per man — still more than enough to know that's it's all about "location, location, location."

Weather, naturally, would factor in. Golf courses are dependent on reasonable weather to attract customers. So if it's too cold or too wet, Prince's would see a slump in business. While that's also a factor for any restaurant, it's more pronounced when you're nearly invisible to potential customers and have no inside restrooms (see below). 

Weak Social Media

As of February 22, 2024 their website has not changed since before they closed. It's as though they're still open on Harbor Drive. That's a huge discourtesy to people who don't know they're closed. IF they plan to reopen at another location, this won't help build goodwill for future customers. Ironically, they say this on their website: "With 20 years of experience, our team is excited to present their vision to you and all our guests." And they did that — in the restaurant. But when it came to social media, they fell flat and floundered about aimlessly.

Not the real Prince's website

Prince's had a Facebook page and an Instagram Page but only had the Facebook link on their website. They under-utilized both. No promotions, no specials, no merchandise. But most importantly, perhaps, was a lack of a solid establishment of identity. In fact, anybody looking up "Prince's Hamburgers" on the search engines of Google or Facebook could be easily misled by out-of-date or fake Prince's pages.

They closed on January 31, but as of Februay 22 their website still tells people, "We are open! Come see us!" That's misleading. How many people have seen that page, went to the golf course for a burger, only to find that they wasted a trip and are now forever distrustful of Prince's Hamburgers?

No Merchandise

The Prince's Hamburgers partners had an iconic, nostaglic name and image that they inexplicably failed to cash in on. 

The image here would have looked great on a t-shirt or sweatshirt. They could have sold them online and in their store. 

Why they never did is a mystery.

The Grand Opening That Wasn't

As noted above, Prince's landlord was the City of Houston, and it was the City of Houston that, at least initially, killed Prince's plans for a Grand Opening. 

On January 31, 2023 Prince's partner Terry McConn emailed me:

Tom, our city and  media grand opening is February 24th.

On February 13, 2023 I learned the following from Terry and posted it on Facebook:

It was to be Feb. 24, but some City of Houston officials said they can't make that date .... and they ALL want to be there for the media event. The city is their landlord at Sh
arpstown Golf Park, so you get the idea. The event has been pushed back to a still-to-be-determined date.

In other words, city officials couldn't get their act together and coldly dismissed Prince's grand opening. Worse, Prince's partners bent over and took it. No date, it seems, was never determined and the Grand Opening never happened....unless they did it so secretively that I never heard about it. 

No Inside Restrooms

Imagine eating in a restaurant and you need to use the restroom ... but it's raining outside and the only way to get to the toilet is to exit the restaurant and walk about 50 feet outside. That's the situation Prince's had. Is that legal for a restaurant that doesn't have the city as it's landlord? 

Poor Communication

Communication between the five partners was not always coordinated. Communication with local media (including social media influencers) was neglected almost entirely. Communication with the public, via social media and hard advertising, was weak at best. Signage was virtually invisible to the general public. 

Even their goodbye message on Instagram is confusing (watch here), and it's curious that they did not post that on their Facebook page or on their website. In fact, as of February 22, 2024 their most recent post on Facebook was on October 6, 2023.

"Continue to follow," it says, promising an "Exciting next chapter of Prince's Hamburgers 2024." Let's hope it's more exciting than 2023 was.