Photo by Estber Robards-Forbes

While the pink flamingos and Pots and Plants will soon be exiting the area, Hat Creek Burger Company is preparing to fill the void.

While the Westbank will be losing the iconic pink flamingoes at the corner of Loop 360 and Bee Cave Road in January, it will be gaining burgers.

Hat Creek Burger Company, which started in a trailer in downtown Austin, will be leasing the former home of Pots and Plants Garden Center starting next year. The goal is open the hottest hangout in the Westbank, said Hat Creek owner and 2000 Westlake High School grad Drew Gressett.

“We can’t wait to get the high school kids coming over there for milkshakes and burgers,” he said.

The Westlake location is part of an expansion plan that could add up to 10 new restaurants in the next five years for the young company, which opened its first brick and mortar restaurant last year in a former Arby’s on Burnet Road. The company also sells burgers at University of Texas football, basketball and baseball games.

The Westlake restaurant will feature Hat Creek’s signature menu, Gressett said, but he hopes to get a beer and wine license from the City of West Lake Hills. The restaurant will be located in the renovated building that used to house Pots and Plants’ outdoor furniture store. The building at the back of the property will be used for a catering operation, Gresset said. There are also plans to add a playscape to the property.

“It’s a family friendly place,” he said. “We’re going to make it look really cool and create something that we’re really proud of.”

Gressett said he’s excited to be returning to his old stomping grounds and that plans for a restaurant in Westlake had always been in the back of his mind. When he heard about a proposed hotel on the site from a Picayune article and that the owner was entertaining offers, Gressett said he started checking into it. The hotel concept got a chilly reception from the West Lake Hills City Council, mostly because of an expanded footprint and a proposed six-story building. The property was eventually purchased by Stream Realty and will be leased to Gressett.

“The dream of mine would have been to have a Hat Creek in Westlake, but we weren’t full-tilt looking for a new location,” Gressett said. “When this location popped up, we wanted to be in the loop on it.”

The project is expected to bring 30-40 jobs to the area. For those concerned about traffic in and out of the tricky intersection, Gresset said the entrance will be on the Loop 360 access road and the exit will be on Bee Cave Road.

Hat Creek Burger Company is expected to open in Westlake in summer 2011 and joins another new burger restaurant, Carl’s Junior, which is opening a location at Walsh Tarlton and Bee Cave Road in January.

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