Black Bear Diner coming to Harlingen

Nov. 13—HARLINGEN — Full service café Black Bear Diner has plans for a restaurant in Harlingen.

The chain, which focuses on homestyle cuisine and "comfort foods," originally opened in Mount Shasta, California, in 1995.

Most of its restaurants are in the West, but they are moving into Oklahoma, Missouri and Texas.

The chain has around 150 restaurants nationwide.

Black Bear, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, already has locations in Brownsville and McAllen.

Last week, a spokesperson for the company confirmed Harlingen is next, although at present could reveal no location or timeline for when the diner will open.

Black Bear Diner was one of the few sit-down restaurant chains which came through the pandemic relatively unscathed, actually increasing its number of locations since 2019.

The Bear's breakfast menu is heavy with steaks and chicken-fried steak, waffles and pancakes.

Lunch is strongly geared toward burgers, with club sandwiches and salads also available.

Dinner is geared toward home-style comfort foods, including roast turkey, slow-cooked pot roast and meat loaf.

Black Bear Diner ranked No. 377 in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 rankings in 2022.