Willie’s Grill & Icehouse: 16 Texas Patios, Motorized Where It Counts
Willie’s is a Texas icehouse chain built around the patio: picnic tables, a long porch, a bar window, and families who come for the burgers and stay for the evening. Since 2020 we have enclosed sixteen Willie’s locations, starting with manual panels and moving, as the group rebuilt its older stores, to motorized curtains and sun shades that a manager runs from a remote.
What we built
- Customer: Willie’s Grill & Icehouse, Houston, Texas.
- 16 locations across Georgetown, Kyle, Leander, Pflugerville, College Station, Katy, Cypress, Pearland, the Houston area, The Woodlands, New Braunfels, Cibolo and San Antonio.
- About 170 panels and 20 framed doors: manual roll-up clear with brown borders on the first stores, motorized clear curtains in brown from 2023 on, and black mesh sun shades on the west walls at Pflugerville, Cypress, Georgetown and Cibolo.
- About 15,000 square feet of enclosure and shade.
- Remodels: Georgetown redone with eight motorized curtains in 2025, Cibolo’s west wall shaded in 2026, a door and fixed panels added at Pflugerville in 2024.
Location by location
| Location | Installed | What |
|---|---|---|
| Georgetown | 2020, remodel 2025 | 8 manual, then 8 motorized and 3 manual, 2 doors |
| Cibolo | 2021, sun shades 2026 | 16 manual, then 3 motorized shades |
| Pearland | 2022 | 17 manual and sun shades |
| Pflugerville | 2022, shades 2023, door 2024 | 6 manual, 2 shades, door |
| Kyle | 2023 | 8 manual, 2 motorized, steel door |
| Leon Springs, San Antonio | December 2023 | 11 manual, 1 door |
| New Braunfels | March 2024 | 2 motorized, 10 manual, 1 door |
| Houston, SH 249 | March 2024 | 3 motorized, 9 manual, 1 door |
| Cypress | July 2024 | 3 motorized sun shades, 5 manual, 2 doors |
| College Station | 2024 | 5 motorized, 2 fixed, 2 doors |
| Katy | October 2024 | 3 motorized, fixed, 1 door |
| The Woodlands | December 2024 | 9 motorized, 8 manual, 4 doors |
| Leander | March 2026 | 12 motorized, 2 steel doors |
| Jones Road, Houston | February 2026 | 8 motorized, 4 manual |
Manual first, motorized when the store is rebuilt
The early Willie’s patios took manual panels because they were cheap to add to a running store. When the group began remodeling, the patio got rebuilt too, and the remodel budget carried motorized curtains: Georgetown in 2025 went from eight hand-rolled panels to eight motorized curtains in one visit. The west walls got mesh instead of clear, because the problem on a Texas porch at five o’clock is the sun, not the cold.
Before and after
Before, the Georgetown porch was timber posts, a rail and sky. The remodel kept the posts and gave the porch eight curtains in the hoods under the roof edge, so it reads as the same porch with the curtains up and a warm room with them down.
Specs
| System | Motorized clear curtains, manual roll-up panels, motorized mesh sun shades, framed steel doors |
| Fabric | Clear vinyl with brown borders; black Nano mesh on sun walls; flame-rated to NFPA 701 |
| Largest job | The Woodlands, 17 panels and 4 doors |
| Wind rating | Motorized 65 mph deployed; manual 45 mph tied down |
| Warranty | 5 years on motors, 3 years on workmanship |
| Lead time | About 6 weeks manual, 8 weeks motorized, from deposit |
| Installation | Our own crew at every location. Outlet locations only; we do not do the electrical. |
Ready for a number on your patio?
Tell us about your space and we'll come back with a design and a number. Commercial projects only — $10,000 minimum, installed.