A Popular Mexican Chain Continues Closing Locations In 2024
Tex-Mex lovers have one less spot to grab burritos and queso after a popular Mexican chain abruptly closed one of its restaurants, continuing a streak of closures that began earlier this year.
A Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant in the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Mo., just closed its doors for good amid an ongoing string of financial ups and downs for the chain. According to the local media outlet The Kansas City Star, a sign posted on the building's door read: "We have permanently closed the location and apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate all our customers and their loyalty to this Chuy's for so many years."
The shuttered location was Chuy's last in the Kansas City area following the closures of two other restaurants in recent years, per the publication. The reasons behind the latest closure are still unclear, and Chuy's did not immediately respond to our queries for comment on the development.
This was the second Chuy's location to stop serving customers since the start of 2024 after the chain's Lakewood, Colo., outpost closed its doors earlier this year, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Despite the closures, Chuy's still boasts a sizable footprint in the United States. The chain had 102 restaurants in operation as of March 31 this year, and the Kansas City closure brought that total down to 101.
The loss of the Kansas City location comes on the heels of a difficult quarter for Chuy's. Same-store sales dropped by 5.2% year over year, and traffic dropped by nearly 7%. The company blamed the sales declines on "unfavorable weather conditions and the timing of Easter," which fell on March 31.
However, not all recent developments at Chuy's have been negative. The chain opened a new restaurant in New Braunfels, Texas, during the quarter. After the quarter ended on March 31, Chuy's opened another new location in Austin.
The chain expects to open six to eight new units in total this year. The relatively small number of Chuy's openings planned for this year shows that the company is being very selective with its expansion plans, which makes sense given its struggles last quarter.
"We are pleased with the performance of our new restaurants thus far and remain on track to achieve our restaurant opening goals for the year," Steve Hislop, president and CEO of Chuy's Holdings, said in a statement.
Chuy's is far from the only chain that has struggled with restaurant closures in 2024. The fast-casual Mexican chain Rubio's Coastal Grill recently shuttered 48 of its California locations ahead of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Red Lobster also closed nearly 100 restaurants in mid-May shortly before declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Recent court documents indicate that more than 100 additional Red Lobster locations may be at risk of meeting the same fate as their shuttered peers.
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