Jordan Barrus of Coco Shrimp
What started as a 1970s ambulance has turned into a food truck and now — a third restaurant location for Coco Shrimp.
The new, 2,800-square-foot location at 7300 Denton Highway in Watauga will be the first stand-alone Coco Shrimp building, offering dine-in and drive-thru options and replacing the food truck currently serving out of that spot.
Although the process of opening the third restaurant has gone smoother than expected, owner Jordan Barrus says a specific opening date is still in the works.
“We want to try and not really set a solid date just yet, just until we're for sure,” Barrus says. “It could be later, could be sooner; [it’s] still kind of tentative.”
The restaurant incorporated a to-go friendly structure long before COVID-19 impacted the U.S., fueling its success during the toughest months of the pandemic, Barrus says. He intends to build off that momentum and pursue the original plan of closing the food truck when the brick-and-mortar opens. Coco Shrimp currently has two other brick-and-mortar locations, one on Bryan Avenue and the other at Heritage Trace Parkway, which opened in the middle of the pandemic last year.
“We left the food truck open, and it ended up doing a lot better than what it was doing before we even opened our restaurant,” Barrus says. “So, we decided to keep it open, and then our second restaurant during COVID, we just decided, you know, everyone else is shutting down, this is a good time to ramp up. We're doing better than we ever have.”
Dedicated regulars and first-time diners alike can rest assured the new location will continue to focus on its familiar Polynesian-inspired dishes, Barrus says. But there's one difference customers can expect at the new spot — tacos, also found at the two restaurant locations but not currently served at the food truck.
“We're just keeping it simple,” Barrus says. “Anything else that we add to it — it's just gonna make [a] longer wait time. We only know shrimp.”
