EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — People were seen lining up this past Friday, March 28 at a new teriyaki spot in far East El Paso, known for its chicken teriyaki.
Teriyaki Madness, a food spot that originated in Seattle, had its grand opening this past Friday at 2900 Eastlake Blvd.
The El Paso Chamber of Commerce Chairman Juan Martinez held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the business and was joined by the owners of Teriyaki Madness and its employees.
Lead trainer Issac Morales for Teriyaki Madness says the business started off with a couple of brothers and some of their friends and ended up expanding to over 160 locations throughout the country.
Morales says the name “madness” was used in the name because their teriyaki is the top of the line and they use the freshest ingredients along with their sauces and gluten-free options.
“As soon as you place your order through our POS (point of sale), everything goes straight into the kitchen and we make it immediately. Nothing is pre-cooked. Everything is made to order,” Morales said.
Morales says the chicken teriyaki is what people are waiting to taste as well as the spicy chicken bowl. Everything is also customizable and it’s a “build your own bowl”-type of franchise.
“You start off with your protein so you can choose what protein you’d like. Then, you move on to your base, whether that be rice or noodles. We have both of those options, and if you don’t want rice or noodles, we can make a power bowl which is a whole lot of vegetables and it makes it that much better,” Morales said.
Morales says the business decided to expand to El Paso because there are not a lot of teriyaki spots within the city.
“We noticed that we haven’t had a presence out here and there’s not a lot of teriyaki in the area so we wanted to make sure we brought fresh ingredients. We wanted to make sure we also brought a healthier option to El Paso,” Morales said.
More than a dozen people were seen lining up on the side of the building Friday morning, anticipating the food spot to open.
Morales says that several people had been camping out outside of the business since the night before and was glad to know that El Pasoans are excited about the business.
“People started camping out last night, so that was shocking and honestly, it just made us feel even better and excited for today,” Morales said.
Morales says the business is looking to expand to San Antonio, Dallas and Houston within the near future.
“I’m just thankful for the community here in El Paso to have us and hopefully, they like our food and I know we’re excited to give this food out to everybody,” Morales said.
The business is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday.
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