I'm honestly incredibly beaten up by this news. While I've never had the chance to try this Texas-based chain, I'm always sad when a restaurant closes. As a self-proclaimed lover of food, it's always heartbreaking. Z'Tejas is shuttering for good, it seems. After 36 years of delivering some of the most delicious food that people can make, they've finally had to say ciao.
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Restaurant Chain Forced to Shutter
As I mentioned before, Z'Tejas has been around for a long time, and that is not by accident. They make some delicious food.
In fact, they've been in the game so long that their peak was in the 1990s. Yeah, before some of you were born.
Along the way, they run into a couple of speed bumps, though. Those speed bumps came in the form of a pair of bankruptcies. One in 2015, and another in 2017. So the writing was on the wall, so to speak.
That second bankruptcy was followed by a purchase of the company, with some lofty ambitions. The purchase was by Randy Cohen, founder of TicketCity. You know, that super big ticketing app? (Haha, yeah, who could've seen this closure happening?)
Randy Cohen told Ahwatukee Foothills News in 2023, "We've got so much love and spirit at Z'Tejas and I just want to see it bounce back to the magic it used to be."
Which, unfortunately, didn't really work out for the former owner of the closed restaurant chain. Clearly.
They did truly try, though. There was hope that after a $1 million investment, another buyer would emerge. And to be fair, the restaurant upgrades were rather impressive. But alas, no buyer came, and now the beloved chain is forced to close.
No More Z'Tejas?
The final location to close was in Kyle, Texas, on June 30th, and it was a sad day.
The company wrote on its website, "After nearly three decades of serving communities across Texas and Arizona, it's time to say goodbye to this chapter."
I personally wish the restaurant chain could have gone out on it's own free will, but the post pandemic food industry has been brutal.
Hopefully, this is one of the last closures of beloved food chains.
