Chi-Chi's
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| Industry | Restaurants, grocery products |
|---|---|
| Fate | Bankruptcy (as restaurants in the U.S. and Canada) |
| Founded | 1975 Richfield, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Defunct | September 18, 2004 (as restaurants in the U.S. and Canada) |
| Products | Mexican food |
| Parent | Hormel |
| Website | www |
Chi-Chi's is a Mexican-restaurant chain operating in China, Belgium, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Indonesia. The chain also once operated in the United States and Canada but exited those countries in 2004. Currently Chi-Chi's is also a brand of Mexican-themed grocery foods (later purchased by Hormel) with an emphasis on salsa.
One lone restaurant was still open in Utah until 2011.
Chi-Chi's was founded in 1975 in Richfield, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, by restaurateur Marno McDermott and former Green Bay Packers player Max McGee. MacDermott had previously founded the Zapata fast-food Mexican chain, which later became Zantigo. From 1977 to 1986, the chain was run by former KFC executive Dula Brown. When Dula took leadership, the chain moved its headquarters to his hometown of Louisville. By March 1995, the chain had grown to 210 locations.
In 2001, Chi-Chi's applied for a trademark 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."
Chi-Chi's last owner while the company was still in business in the U.S. was Prandium Inc., which had filed for bankruptcy several times, including in 1993 as Restaurant Enterprises Group Inc. and again in 2002 as Prandium. On October 8, 2003, Chi-Chi's and Koo Koo Roo, another Prandium subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy themselves.
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Wikipedia