Updates:
- Commenter Peg gives us a photo album of Wisconsin-Mexican Destruction (Wisconsin 1, Chi-Chi's 0).
- Emailer and former CC busboy Greg reports on his Wikipedia entry and the heartstring-tugging rumors that somewhere, a Chi-Chi's is still operational - Belgium (?) and Luxembourg (???????) Greg. Don't toy with my emotions like that, Greg.
Speaking of emotional:
Declaration of Salsafication which, at one point, appeared on the back of the menu: [3]
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to
solemnly declare the right to be free and salsafied, absolved from all
connection to the shackles of the bored, the ordinary and the bland.
We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all Chi-Chi's are
created to salsafy our lives through good food, festive drink,
and the pursuit of some serious fun.
Further it is the right of the people to abolish routine. As a free
and salsafied people. You have the full power to come together,
to eat, to drink, to be loud, to relax, to goof off, to pause.
On support of this declaration, we pledge to you these
articles of salsafication for as long as the sun does rise.
For life always needs a little salsa.™
OMG YOU'RE WELCOME, INTERNET.
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7 comments:
i LOVE this site, please continue updating it.
i miss chi chi's. i loved their chips & salsa, i'm so sad its gone.
the last time i went was 7 years ago in MA somewhere on a family trip.
Hi! somehow stumbled upon your website. it's so weird to see all those abandoned chi-chi's cus i'm actually working in chi-chi's in luxembourg. and let me tell you, it is very much still open. it's always packed! if any of you are ever passing through luxembourg (as if, its a little out of the way!!) do drop in and say hey!
dammit, I was in luxembourg this summer and had no idea about the chi-chis presence!
it makes sense that chi-chis would migrate to belgium: the belgians have made an art of frying food, so what better place to continue the legacy of fried ice cream?
by the way, the chi-chis in ann arbor was turned into a quite nice Japanese restaurant, Cherry Blossom, complete with tatami rooms and waterfalls cascading down marble sheets behind the sushi chefs. The outside is still stucco, though, and you can see the faint outline where the chi-chis sign used to be.
This blog rocks my socks off.
I eat 3-4 times a year the Luxembourg Chi-Chis since I live in France. If you want I will take photos for you next time.
Not sure if they have fried ice-cream though...
we do have fried ice cream! i promise!
Should've had a Declaration to keep the mid to late-80's menu instead. That California-influenced crap of the early to mid-90's did them in way before the salmonella in Beaver.
The new chicken asada looked like dog food. The new spanish rice was dry and almost impossible to make. And let's not forget that tomatillo sauce; yuck, and it looked like ground up crabgrass. Everything got so bad and so hard to make (and even harder to stomach) the restaurants actually had to train their kitchen managers to be 'chefs' so they could supervise food production. It worked better without chefs and better tasting and easier to prepare food. A classic example how not to run a restaurant: change the menu from the one that made you a success. Way to go!
Hi there
I live in Luxembourg and can indeed confirm there are chi-chi's restaurants in Luxembourg and Belgium.
Here are their websites:
http://www.chi-chis.lu/
http://www.chichis.be/
and here is a presentation about their franchise system:
http://www.chichis.be/en/franchise/index.html
As far as I remember the Luxembourg restaurant opened around 1988 or so. It is operated by a company called Happy Snacks which also operates local Pizza Hut Restaurants and Quick (Local alternative to Mc Donnalds).
Happy Snacks is owned by the Scholer family who aslo owned the now defunct chain of Monopol supermarkets.
Trivia : The Chi-Chi's restaurant in Luxembourg is next door to a Pizza Hut and there is a "secret door" used by the staff to pass from one restaurant to another.
From what I heard from previous employees, hygene is not their top priority... but the place is always packed, especially the terrace in summer
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