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It started as a single hamburger-focused restaurant in Hingham. Then came the reality show. Then came the planned expansions to Toronto, Philadelphia, Boston proper, and Las Vegas. Next: world domination?
Wahlburgers CEO Rick Vanzura — who, as a former Panera executive, is no stranger to expansion — tells the Boston Business Journal that the United States can hold 300 Wahlburgers locations, although it'd take about a decade to reach that point. For now, there are three planned locations in Vegas, "several" in Philadelphia, one in Toronto, and two around here (Fenway and Lynnfield, which could both open by July 2015). While all of locations outside of the first will technically be franchises, according to the Boston Business Journal, the local ones will be "managed as corporate stores" and Wahlberg brothers Mark, Donnie, and Paul "will have ownership stakes."
Meanwhile, the Wahlburgers reality television show is now in the middle of its second season.
