Original Chili's to close

Sometimes, it stuns even someone as cynical as I am how befuddled large corporations can be. Case in point: Chili's decision to close its Greenville Ave restaurant, the first of what are today 1,300 locations around the world and the flagship of the 1,800-restaurant Brinker chain.

Here's an opportunity for Chili's to get some good press, to celebrate the company's success, to get nostalgic and generally look like good guys. It sure needs the boost -- its profit has decreased by three-quarters in the past two years, while its stock price is near its 52-week low. So what does Chili's do? It announces on Monday that it's closing the store "based on a number of evaluative criteria" and says everything will be gone by noon today. So much for sentimentality. There isn't even a press release on the company's web site.

Because closing this location is a big deal, a real part of Dallas and neighborhood history. Anyone who was here when it opened in 1975 will tell you that the lines went around the building. It was a hip and trendy to eat at Chili's, and founder Larry Lavine had devised a restaurant concept that had not really existed before.

Comments

[Brian]

I'll miss the old Chili's. Always a safe bet if you are dining with small children. In my family's years in exile in New Jersey we would go to Chili's for a taste of home and better service than you would find at most mom and pop places up there.

[LSC]

Sorry to see it go. We used to go there for lunch when it first opened I was in high school (we had an open campus back then). I'm afraid it will join the empty restaurant ranks with their neighbors.

[Triple Wildcat]

What a disgusting example of corporate ignorance. First, they change the menu so much it's unrecognizable from the fare that made Chili's famous (The REAL Old Timer Burger is nothing like the Big Mouth Burger they serve now. Plus, where are the great soft tacos?).

As tragic as this is from a nostalgia viewpoint, it's also the loss of another restaurant option in the Lake Highlands (or near-Lake Highlands) area. I guess this means Mi Cocina will be even more crowded. Hopefully, there will be a Chili's in the new Town Center.

[Farinata X]

This is sad for historical and sentimental reasons having to do with this particular location, but chain restaurants like Chili's that present the same homogenized experience regardless of location are antithetical to the kind of neighborhood culture many of us value.

[LSC]

I drove by today and it's already bored up!