Logo used since September 2011.
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Wholly owned subsidiary | |
Industry | Restaurant |
Genre | Casual dining |
Founded | March 13, 1975 |
Founder | Larry Lavine |
Headquarters | 6820 LBJ Freeway Dallas, Texas, U.S. 75240 |
Number of locations
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1,606 (2017) |
Area served
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Worldwide |
Key people
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Wyman Roberts (CEO), Kelli Valade, President |
Products |
Tex-Mex American cuisine |
Parent | Brinker International |
Website |
www |
Footnotes / references |
Chili's Grill & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant chain that features Tex-Mex-style cuisine. The company was founded by Larry Lavine in Texas in 1975 and is currently owned and operated by Brinker International.
Chili's first location, a converted postal station on Greenville Ave. in the Vickery Meadows area of Dallas, Texas, opened in 1975. The original Chili's on Greenville Ave. moved to a new building on the same site in 1981 before relocating again in 2007. (A 7-Eleven convenience store/gas station is now on the site.)
Lavine's concept was to create an informal, full-service dining restaurant with a menu featuring different types of hamburgers offered at an affordable price. The brand proved successful, and by the early 1980s, there were 28 Chili's locations in the region, all featuring similar Southwest decor.
In 1983, Lavine sold the company to restaurant executive Norman E. Brinker, formerly of the Pillsbury restaurant group that owned Bennigan's.
In addition to their regular menu, the company offers a nutritional menu, allergen menu, and vegetarian menu. It also offers a veggie burger (non-vegan) that is supplied by the Kellogg Company. In 2016, the "Sunrise Burger" (which includes an egg) and the "Ultimate Bacon Burger" were added to the menu.
"Chili's (Welcome to Chili's!)" is an advertising jingle used in Chili's Restaurant commercials to advertise the restaurant's line of baby back ribs. The ad features a doo-wop quartet singing a cappella. The song was written by Guy Bommarito and produced by Tom Faulkner Productions for GSD&M Advertising of Austin, Texas. Faulkner sings both "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...", as well as the melodic theme. The deep "Bar-B-Q Sauce" was sung by famed New York bass vocalist, Willie McCoy. Advertising Age magazine named the song first on its list of "10 songs most likely to get stuck in your head" in 2004.