Fork to Fit Kitchen, the Texas-born health-focused fast food brand, signed its first multi-unit franchise development agreement on June 6, 2026 — a four-unit deal that will bring the concept to San Antonio and kick-start a national expansion the company says could ultimately reach 2,500 to 3,500 locations across the United States.
Founded in 2018 in McAllen, Texas, Fork to Fit Kitchen operates ten corporate locations across the Rio Grande Valley and pairs calorie-counted, macro-balanced meals with a proprietary wellness app called Fork Pulse.
Fork to Fit Kitchen is a fast food concept where every meal, shake and coffee is calorie- and macro-tracked, built to make healthier eating as fast and affordable as conventional QSR. The brand was created in response to the Rio Grande Valley’s elevated rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease — one of the most health-challenged regions in Texas — and has spent eight years proving the model in its home market.
Where most health-forward chains compete on salads and bowls alone, Fork to Fit’s full menu spans meals, protein shakes, coffees and grab-and-go items, putting it closer to a true fast-food replacement than a niche salad bar.
The agreement covers the greater San Antonio area, with active site selection underway in Schertz, the Culebra corridor and Encino Park, and additional sites near La Cantera and City Base under review alongside broker Merit Commercial Real Estate.
“Signing our first multi-unit franchisee tells us the model is ready to scale,” said CEO Alex Velasco.
The four restaurants will be developed by Dr. Narciso Gonzalez, founder of Pain and Spine Physicians of San Antonio, operating through G5 Restaurant Group, LLC with Ethan Gonzalez as principal operator. A physician-led franchise group is a notable signal for a brand whose pitch is health outcomes — an alignment of operator and concept that echoes the broader convergence of healthcare and fitness-wellness businesses reshaping the sector in 2026.
Leadership describes the kitchens as the “front door” of a connected platform tying food, fitness, biometrics and clinical care together. The Fork Pulse app links meals, workouts and wellness tracking into a personalized customer experience, while a centralized commissary model and tight menu architecture are designed to keep multi-unit operations consistent.
The SBA directory approval matters: it lets qualified franchisees pursue SBA-backed financing, historically a meaningful accelerant for emerging brands moving from regional to national footprints. Multi-unit, market-anchoring agreements — the strategy Fork to Fit says it will follow — have become the dominant growth mechanism in US franchising, as seen in the wave of large multi-unit commitments being signed across the industry.
For investors watching from Asia and the Middle East, the more interesting question is whether macro-tracked fast food becomes an exportable category. Health-positioned QSR is still underdeveloped in most Asian and Gulf markets even as wellness spending surges, and concepts that bundle food with an app-based health layer could leapfrog conventional formats there — provided they nail unit economics first, a discipline that has tripped up even well-funded brands choosing between US and international expansion. Fork to Fit’s San Antonio test will show whether the model anchors markets beyond its home turf.
