Chi-Chi’s Mexican Restaurant Returns After 20 Years
Chi-Chi’s Mexican Restaurant is officially returning and set to open its doors on October 6 at 1602 West End Blvd. in St Louis Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nearly 20 years after closing, Chi Chi’s is set to make a comeback in an agreement with Hormel Foods, owner of the CHI-CHI’S™ trademarks, with Michael McDermott, the son of CHI-CHI’S™ founder, able to use the CHI-CHI’S™ name on physical restaurant locations.
While the Mexican restaurant still lives on in grocery stores, its physical locations have been on hiatus for two decades, but now, that dream is coming true, as the beloved restaurant is finally making a highly anticipated comeback. IBISWorld forecasts the Mexican restaurant industry’s revenue to reach $96.4 billion by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 4.7% over the past five years.
The timing couldn’t be better for Chi-Chi’s return. After years of declining foot traffic and sales, the restaurant industry is now experiencing a revival, particularly in the Mexican food category, with U.S. Department of Commerce showing sales of food services and drinking places grew 5.5% year-over-year to $787 billion. This comeback represents more than just nostalgia – it’s backed by solid market data showing strong demand for Mexican cuisine nationwide.
Golden Corral Bounces Back Stronger Than Ever
In 2025, Golden Corral operates approximately 400 locations in 40 states and has bounced back from COVID as strong as ever, with the company saying its locations have reported strong average weekly sales performance for the restaurant chain. The buffet giant has defied predictions and emerged as one of the industry’s most surprising success stories.
Following COVID, Golden Corral leadership was intent on enhancing sanitary policies while also improving employee relations, wanting to make these changes while also keeping costs the same for customers, and combined with the overall negative impact COVID had on the restaurant industry, this reduced Golden Corral’s competition and opened the door for the chain to emerge as strong as ever.
That effort was not in vain, as it was named Newsweek’s number one buffet chain in America in 2025 and recognized as one of Yelp’s 50 Most Loved Brands of 2023. The chain’s revival strategy focused on what many competitors abandoned during the pandemic – maintaining affordable prices while significantly improving safety standards and employee satisfaction.
TGI Fridays Charts New Course Under Familiar Leadership
As TGI Fridays approaches its 60th anniversary in 2025, the chain is looking to regain strength since filing for bankruptcy in 2024, doing so under the leadership of a boomerang CEO, Ray Blanchette, who held the title from 2018 to 2023, left, and was lured back to rebuild the struggling brand after a tough few years.
Within his first 100 days back, the company had already upgraded 80% of its menu, with a new food and cocktail menu launching nationwide on May 13, with upgrades focusing on improving ingredient quality and consistency, with a renewed emphasis on in-house preparation, returning to practices like hand-breading chicken, hand-cutting steaks and making sauces from scratch.
TGI Fridays, under new ownership, wants 1,000 locations globally, and it’s already putting the pieces together to support that objective. With TGI Fridays now operating under a debt-free structure, franchisees fully own and manage their locations, allowing them to focus on what matters most – delivering exceptional guest experiences, with local ownership ensuring a deep understanding of their guests’ unique preferences, empowering franchisees to uphold the brand promise: unforgettable experiences, indulgent food and legendary cocktails.
Friendly’s Attempts Another Revival Despite Ongoing Challenges
Sherif Mityas, CEO of Brix Holdings, believes Friendly’s will return to net unit growth in 2025, with Mityas predicting the chain will return to net unit growth next year and pursue a strategy of sensible growth focused on profitability after that. However, the nearly century-old chain faces significant headwinds in its comeback attempt.
The chain’s unit count peaked around 850 in 1996, but is now down to around 100. With several additional stores expected to close in 2024 and several others expected to open, Mityas anticipates that Friendly’s restaurant count will largely remain unchanged this year, but next year, Brix expects Friendly’s to start expanding again and increase its footprint by three to four new stores, wanting to “grow sensibly, grow where it makes sense and grow profitably”.
One key facet of the comeback plan revolves around the food – Friendly’s has overhauled its menu with unique new twists on classic comfort fare, introducing items like a new Cheese Skirt Burger with a massive piece of fried cheese cascading off the patty and a new Fries ‘n’ Ice Cream Dipper sundae that comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of chocolate sauce, fries, and a dusting of powdered sugar, and the company is pleased with the menu updates, saying they’re aiding in its comeback efforts.
Cicis Pizza Stabilizes and Plans Modest Growth
Launched in Texas in 1985, Cicis Pizza operated with a can’t-miss formula selling pizza at a much cheaper price and in a much larger variety than other mega-chains by keeping its products simple, modest, and part of an all-you-can-eat buffet, and by 2012, it could boast both quantity and quality, with a broad customer survey naming Cicis the country’s favorite pizza chain, expanding to 550 outlets in 24 states.
In 2021, Cicis had shrunk by about half, and the parent company of the chain of around 300 stores filed for bankruptcy, unable to manage the operational and financial challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, when shutdown orders forced regular customers out of restaurants’ dining rooms.
By 2025, the restaurant count had stabilized at 270 stores, and the environment was stable enough for Cicis to expand its menu with innovative choices like an Oreo Brownie Pizza, a chicken and waffle pizza, and a Nashville-style chicken pizza, and celebrating four decades in business, the company is aggressively pursuing new franchisees to continue to slowly but steadily open up new spots around the country.
