This Struggling Tex-Mex Chain Is Closing Down More Locations Across The US

Lovers of casual Tex-Mex restaurants will be devastated to learn that one of the predominant brands is likely to shut down altogether. On The Border, a restaurant founded in Dallas, Texas, back in 1982, has alerted most restaurant managers across the country that their location will be shuttering in the coming days. In fact, several of these managers have been informed that their store will cease operations as early as Friday this week if their doors haven't already been closed.

This comes after On The Border was recently purchased by Pappas Restaurants at the beginning of May. Upon the takeover's completion, Christina Pappas — the new parent company's chief marketing officer — claimed that the restaurant would continue to evolve under new leadership to satisfy long-time fans of the chain. While it remains to be seen if these rapid closures — which are expected to impact most, if not all of the less-than-60 remaining locations across the country — are part of a plan to rehabilitate the brand for an eventual return or is intended to simply kill it off entirely, many fans of On The Border (and its delicious tortilla chips) will be out of luck if they find themselves wanting to pay the chain a visit in the foreseeable future.

Now, it's important to note that some other On the Border managers have revealed that they had not been told of the impending closure as of Wednesday. However, whether the restaurant chain retains a handful of locations as it goes through this downsizing or the concept is scrapped altogether, this is far from an unexpected occurrence for those who have been keeping up with On The Border lately. Known in recent years for being among the several Mexican restaurant chains that went from immensely popular to barely existing, On The Border filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025, a sign that momentum was not on the chain's side in the years following the COVID-19 era. While this was partly blamed on roughly 40 of the chain's locations being demonstrably unprofitable, struggles have persisted even as the chain downsized from its 120 restaurants in 2023 to the 57 restaurants that remained open as of earlier this year.

If there's one bright side to this unfortunate scenario for On The Border fans, it's that this turbulence and potential erasure of the brand will not mean the end of On The Border grocery store products. That's right, those who agree that On The Border's store-bought red salsa is among the best of the best are in luck; the salsa and all other grocery products with the On The Border branding are owned and produced by Utz Brands, meaning they are separate from the restaurant itself and will not be impacted by its potential demise.