Chi-Chi's

Chi-Chi's can either refer to a Mexican food restaurant chain founded in the United States in 1975, which continued in Europe only (as a Tex-Mex restaurant, under different ownership) after the North American owner declared bankruptcy and folded in 2004, or to its namesake brand of Mexican food grocery products produced and marketed when the original North American restaurant chain owner sold the rights to use its name on said products in 1987.

Chi-Chi's
Product type
  • Tex-Mex restaurant chain (Europe)
  • Mexican-style grocery items (United States)
Owner
  • unclear (European restaurant chain)
  • MegaMex Foods (grocery items)
Country
  • Belgium (restaurant chain)
  • United States (grocery items)
Introduced1975 (1975) (as Mexican-food US restaurant)
Markets
  • Europe (restaurants)
  • United States (grocery items)
Website
Chi-Chi's
(North America)
IndustryRestaurants
Founded1975 (1975)
Richfield, Minnesota, U.S.
DefunctSeptember 18, 2004 (2004-09-18) (as restaurants in the U.S. and Canada)
FateBankruptcy (as restaurants in the U.S. and Canada)
ProductsMexican food
Websitewww.chichis.be

Restaurant chain

Chi-Chi's is a Mexican-restaurant chain operating in Belgium, Austria, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait by Tumbleweed, Inc.[1] The chain also once operated in the United States and Canada but exited those countries in 2004.

Founding

Chi-Chi's was founded in 1975 in Richfield, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, by restaurateur Marno McDermott (his wife's nickname was "Chi Chi"[2]) and former Green Bay Packers player Max McGee. McDermott had previously founded the Zapata fast-food Mexican chain, which later became Zantigo.[3] From 1977 to 1986, the chain was run by former KFC executive Shelly Frank.[4] When Frank took leadership, the chain moved its headquarters to his hometown of Louisville. By March 1995, the chain had grown to 210 locations.[5]

Management and marketing

In 2001, Chi-Chi's applied for a trademark[6] on the word "salsafication" but was denied by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The company's slogans were "A celebration of food" and, later, "Life always needs a little salsa."[3]

Bankruptcy, hepatitis A, and closure in United States and Canada

Chi-Chi's last owner while the company was still in business in the U.S. and Canada was Prandium Inc., which had filed for bankruptcy several times, including in 1993 as Restaurant Enterprises Group Inc. and again in 2002 as Prandium.[7] On October 8, 2003, Chi-Chi's and Koo Koo Roo, another Prandium subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy themselves.[7]

In November 2003, a month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Chi-Chi's was hit with the largest hepatitis A outbreak in U.S. history, with at least four deaths and 660 other victims of illness in the Pittsburgh area,[8] including high school students who caught the disease from the original victims.[9] The hepatitis was traced back to green onions at the Chi-Chi's at Beaver Valley Mall near Monaca, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Pittsburgh.[10] Chi-Chi's settled the hepatitis A lawsuits by July 2004.[11] At the time the suits were settled, Chi-Chi's had only 65 restaurants, fewer than half of the number of four years prior.[12]

In August 2004, Outback Steakhouse bid $42.5 million[13] for the rights to buy its choice of Chi-Chi's 76 properties, but did not purchase the Chi-Chi's name, operations, or recipes.[14] On the weekend of September 18, 2004, Chi-Chi's closed all 65 of its remaining restaurants.[12] Outback had hoped to convert many of the properties to its own restaurants, but instead eventually sold the majority of the properties to Kimco Realty Corporation, a real estate investment trust company in New Hyde Park, New York.[15]

Europe
Chi-Chi's restaurant in Brussels (2011)

Chi-Chi's master franchise now belongs to a Swiss company which franchises Chi-Chi's in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa, the best-represented country being Belgium, with 3 units.[16]

The European-based company tried to expand into Denmark in 2011[17] but no reliable citation can be found when the Danish restaurants were closed.

Chi-Chi's expanded into Austria by opening their first restaurant in Vienna in 2018.[18]

Grocery brand

In 1987, Hormel Foods acquired the rights to produce and market Chi-Chi's branded salsa and related products in the United States. By 1996, Hormel was making $60-million annually from this product line.[19] In 2009, Hormel formed a 50%-50% joint venture with Mexico-based food manufacturer Herdez Del Fuerte called MegaMex Foods, LLC, to manufacture and distributed Mexican food products in the United States. The Chi-Chi's brand was placed in this new company along with other related food brands such as Herdez, La Victoria and Búfalo brands.[20] Besides salsas, the Chi-Chi's brand also include dips, tortillas, tortilla chips and taco seasoning mixes.[21][22] Chi-Chi's branded food products are usually found in major supermarkets and discount stores.

In April 2021, MegaMex hired a TikTok personality to be their Chi-Chi's brand ambassador for that year's Cinco de Mayo advertising period.[23]

See also

References
  1. "Chi-Chi's Brand FAQ". Hormel Foods. Retrieved 2017-11-20.
  2. "Chi-Chi's Inc. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Chi-Chi's Inc". www.referenceforbusiness.com. Retrieved 2017-08-21.
  3. "Chi-Chi's Inc". Funding Universe. Retrieved 2008-10-09.
  4. Schoifet, Mark (January 27, 1986). "Frank exits Chi-Chi's, plans early retirement". Nation's Restaurant News. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
  5. Benmour, Eric (June 14, 1996). "Chi-Chi's closes oldest store here as pullback continues". Business First of Louisville. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
  6. "Salsafication trademark application" (PDF). Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-10-03. Retrieved 2007-05-16.
  7. Spector, Amy. Nation's Restaurant News.' October 20, 2003. FindArticles.com.
  8. "Hepatitis A outbreak claims its 4th victim". Deseret News (Salt Lake City). April 4, 2004. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017. Retrieved October 24, 2007.
  9. . "Hepatitis A outbreak spreads to students". Deseret News (Salt Lake City). December 14, 2003. Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  10. "Business at Beaver Valley Mall Chi-Chi's nearly back - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. February 15, 2004.
  11. . Nation's Restaurant News. July 12, 2004. FindArticles.com. Accessed October 24, 2007.
  12. Lockyer, Sarah E. (October 4, 2004). "Chi-Chi's Inc. said adios last month and shuttered till 65 of its Mexican dinnerhouses as Outback Steakhouse I". Nation's Restaurant News.
  13. "Outback to Buy 76 Chi-Chi's". The Ledger (Lakeland, Florida). 5 August 2004. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  14. "Outback Steakhouse to rebrand Chi-Chi's". USA Today. 23 September 2004. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  15. "Chi-Chi's plans $35.2m sale of outlets, leases". Nation's Restaurant News. 5 July 2004. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014.
  16. "Chi-Chi's". Chi-Chi's Belgium.
  17. Vammen, Hanne. "Første Chi-Chi's i Skandinavien er åbnet i Aarhus: Jeppe Stærk og Henrik Overgaard vil åbne yderligere fem restauranter i Danmark og 40 i Skandinavien" [The first Chi-Chi's in Scandinavia has opened in Aarhus: Jeppe Stærk and Henrik Overgaard will open another five restaurants in Denmark and 40 in Scandinavia]. Lokalavisen Aarhus (in Danish). Archived from the original on 2021-02-16.
  18. "Chi-Chi's: Tex Mex Restaurant kommt zu uns" [Chi-Chi's: Tex Mex Restaurant comes to us]. OE24 Netzwerk (in Austrian German). September 17, 2018.
  19. Lazarus, George (February 26, 1996). "Hormel joins forces with Mexican salsa maker". Chicago Tribune.
  20. Dorfman, Brad (June 19, 2009). "Hormel, Herdez Del Fuerte form U.S. food venture". Reuters.
  21. "Chi-Chi's". MegaMex Foods. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  22. Caramanna, Carly (March 11, 2021). "The Untold Truth Of Chi-Chi's". Mashed.com.
  23. "The Makers of the CHI-CHI'S® Brand Announce First-Ever "Chief Tortilla Officer" in Celebration of Cinco de Mayo". WFMZ-TV. April 30, 2021.
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