Zalat Pizza plans McKinney opening this summer
Zalat Pizza is opening at 1720 N. Central Expressway in McKinney this summer, adding a late-night specialty pizza shop to a fast-growing corridor.
Zalat Pizza plans to open its newest Texas restaurant this summer at 1720 N. Central Expressway, Ste. 210 in McKinney, a site that places the chain in one of the city’s busiest travel and retail corridors. The opening will be Zalat’s 31st location in Texas, marking another step in the brand’s expansion across North Texas and beyond Dallas.
The McKinney store adds a different kind of pizza option to the local market. Zalat, founded in 2015, describes itself as open late and built around hand-tossed New York-style pizzas with specialty combinations that lean far from standard chain offerings. The menu features items such as Pho Shizzle, Loaded Notato and Elote, alongside pies like Pepperoni Masterclass, Sweet Revenge and Pineapple Express. Pho Shizzle layers chicken, red bell peppers, caramelized onions, hoisin and Sriracha swirls with basil and cilantro, a style of flavor mixing that helps Zalat stand out in a crowded category.
Zalat’s own locations page listed 30 restaurants across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin before the McKinney opening, underscoring how the company has grown from a North Texas concept into a broader Texas chain. Founder and CEO Khanh Nguyen immigrated to the United States as a refugee from Vietnam in 1975, later worked as an attorney and tech entrepreneur, and used his earlier restaurant DaLat as a launching point for Zalat’s late-night pizza model.
McKinney’s population growth helps explain why more chains are choosing the city. The City of McKinney estimated the population at 214,810 in 2024, 224,043 in 2025 and 237,130 as of Jan. 1, 2026. City population history shows McKinney has climbed from 85,865 in 2004 to 237,130 in 2026, and the city’s 2025 Annual Development Report said more than 13,000 new residents chose to call McKinney home last year. That growth has turned the Central Expressway corridor into a stronger bet for restaurants that want both neighborhood traffic and commuters after dark.
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