Chili's
Chili's
Type | 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 | 1,606 (2017) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Wyman Roberts(CEO), Kelli Valade, President |
| Products | Tex-Mex & American cuisine |
| Parent | Brinker International |
| Website | chilis.com [16] |
| Footnotes / references [1][2] | |
Chili's Grill & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant chain.[3] The company was founded by Larry Lavine in Texas in 1975 and is currently owned and operated by Brinker International.
Type | 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 | 1,606 (2017) |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Wyman Roberts(CEO), Kelli Valade, President |
| Products | Tex-Mex & American cuisine |
| Parent | Brinker International |
| Website | chilis.com [16] |
| Footnotes / references [1][2] | |
History
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.[5]
In 1983, Lavine sold the company to restaurant executive Norman E. Brinker, formerly of the Pillsbury restaurant group that owned Bennigan's.[5]
Menu
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.[6] In 2016, the "Sunrise Burger" (which includes an egg) and the "Ultimate Bacon Burger" were added to the menu.[7]
Advertising
"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.[8] In October 2017, the jingle was revived to advertise Chili's new menu, where it was re-conceptualized as "Oh Baby, Chili's is Back (Baby, Back, Baby, Back)".
In 2008, the chain aired parody ads for "P. J. Bland's", a fictional restaurant chain with cardboard foods.[9]
In 2012, Chili's used Wendy Rene's Stax single Bar-B-Q in their TV commercial.[10]
In September 2017 Chili's dropped about 40 percent of its menu items to focus on burgers, ribs, and fajitas.[11]
Foreign locations
Map showing every country with at least one Chili's restaurant.
Chili's serves American food influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine, such as spicy shrimp tacos, bacon burgers, and steak.
| Asia | Europe | Middle East | North America / Caribbean | Central / South America | Africa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| India[3] | Germany | Bahrain | Canada | Brazil | Morocco |
| Indonesia | Russia | Jordan | Dominican Republic | Costa Rica | Tunisia |
| Japan | Kuwait | Mexico | Colombia | ||
| Malaysia | Lebanon | Puerto Rico | Ecuador | ||
| Philippines | Oman | United States | El Salvador | ||
| South Korea | Qatar | Guatemala | |||
| Taiwan | Saudi Arabia | Honduras | |||
| United Arab Emirates | Panama | ||||
| Egypt | Peru | ||||
| Venezuela |
Legal problems
In October 2008, a Chili's Australia franchise was prosecuted and fined AU$300,000 by the NSW Office of Industrial Relations for underpaying staff, pressuring employees to sign an Australian workplace agreement, and failing to pay AU$45,000 in owed wages by a deadline set by the Office of Industrial Relations. In the same year, Chili's announced that it would be closing all of its Australian branches.[14]