Union Bear Taproom (Finally) Opens in McKinney with Sicilian-Style Pizza

Union Bear, owned by 33 Restaurant Group, has officially opened its third location in the McKinney Town Square.

The restaurant maintains the rustic brown interior with heavy green accents found in the other two Union Bear locations in Plano and Denton. And also like those two locations, the space is a mix of deep booths, bar seating and ample outdoor space. The layout creates an open, inviting atmosphere for customers.

But, unlike the other locations, Union Bear McKinney does not have a brewery; it’s simply a restaurant and taproom.

“This will be our first tap room only, so we're not brewing on site, but we get to bring beers from our Denton location and then also our distributors pick up from Plano, so we got a little of both on tap,” says Tanner Fleming, director of operations for Union Bear.

Lucky for beer lovers, they plan on eventually bringing the new location its own special brew when the dust settles and the restaurant becomes more acquainted with itself.
“We're also looking at a beer we could brew in Denton on the small system that would be a McKinney exclusive – that's something we're looking at down the road, once we get up and going and get the vibes,” says Fleming. I think it'd be something that if we have guests that are asking for a certain beer, nonstop or whatever, it'll be something that we look at the list and go, ‘What would work here?’”

Currently, the McKinney location has about 10 brews from Denton and about seven from Plano. Some of the signature beers on the menu are the UB Blonde Ale, UB No Coast IPA, UB Mexican Lager and the UB Hefeweizen.

For food, customers can find McKinney exclusives like dirty chips, which are fried, dry-spiced chips with pulled pork, pico de gallo, cheddar jack and a bourbon barbecue sauce. Texas toothpicks are steak, shrimp and jalapeno-cheddar sausage skewers topped with a bourbon glaze. Both of these are on the snacks and shares (appetizers) section.

A couple of steakhouse items were added to the menu, like the grilled pork chop with sweet potato purée and apple cranberry sauce and the grilled New York strip steak with red chimichurri and skinny fries, making it the only location offering these dishes.

Especially unique to every location is the pizza selection. McKinney gets Sicilian-style pizza with either a classic white or red sauce; both are deep dish and square cut for $18.

“If you saw Denton, it's the hand-stretched pizza, and then Plano has flatbreads,” Tanner says. “Some people like this better than this, or this better than that, you know, it's just cool that you could literally hit three different Union Bears, and it's three different pizzas, if you’re doing a pizza tour at Union Bear it's different everywhere."

It’s not 33 Restaurant Group’s first time serving pizza; they own Cadillac Pizza Pub nearby, which tends to win the best pizza in McKinney. The McKinney Chamber of Commerce also just named the group the Outstanding Business of the Year at the 2025 Community Awards.

Those deep origins make McKinney a great location for a new Union Bear.

“The roots we have here, seeing it come to fruition here, it's really surreal, because there's a point where you're like, ‘Is this ever gonna happen,’ and when it does, it's just that much more fulfilling,” Fleming says.

This location has been a work in progress since 2020, and originally it was going to include production brewing, but due to COVID-19 and other high fees, they had to scale back. Just around that time, Armadillo Ale Works in Denton closed and that facility was production-ready and quickly became UB's second location.

“This was supposed to be number two, but it's number three,” Fleming says. “You know, when you permit with the city, you got to go back and say, ‘Oh, new plans, new permits, new all of that stuff,’ and so, it's been a minute, but we're so glad that it's here; it's kind of surreal.”

Thankfully, all that time preparing to open allowed the team to polish every detail.

“I think what we're kind of going for, vibe wise, is like the country club, that you don't have to pay to be a part of, or make you pay a monthly fee to feel the way that we want to make you feel when you come in the building,” General Manager Gabe Nissen says. “We want to make you feel like you're at an exclusive party, but that everybody's welcome, and we're just trying to take great care of people and serve up some good food and beer in the process.”

Apart from patio seating, guests can also enjoy another outdoor uncovered section with big tables and fun lawn games like corn hole — adding to the vacation feel and experience.

“We want to make sure that we're a fixture of the community and build not only our own business, but also help sustain some of the businesses in the community and help bring some vibrancy and energy to our area, our little area of the square, you know? And we want to build good leaders, we want to build good team members and take great care of our guests,” Nissen says.

Union Bear McKinney, 308 W. Virginia St. Tuesday - Thursday 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.; Friday - Saturday 11 a.m. - 12 a.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Monday Closed