Chevys Fresh Mex

A Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant in April 2001.

The chain was founded in 1981 by Warren Simmons,[8] when he opened the first restaurant in Alameda, California.[9] It grew to 37 restaurants across California by August 1993, when it was acquired by PepsiCo subsidiary Taco Bell. When PepsiCo decided to exit the restaurant business in 1997, Chevys was sold to the investment group J.W. Childs Associates.[10] In 1999, Chevys purchased Rio Bravo Cantina, a poorly performing chain of Tex-Mex restaurants with 66 locations across the United States, from Applebee's International for $59 million.[11]

However, business was poor at the Rio Bravo locations, and in 2003 Chevys' executives filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[8] For the next year and a half, Chevys operated as debtor in possession under Chapter Eleven. In January 2005, Chevys and Fuzio Universal Pasta were acquired by Real Mex Restaurants, Inc., the Long Beach, California-based parent company of El Torito Restaurants and Acapulco Mexican Restaurants.[12] The acquisitions gave Real Mex Restaurants claim as the largest operator of full-service Mexican restaurants in the United States. Real Mex subsequently passed through bankruptcy in 2011–2012, and finally in 2018 when Real Mex Restaurants, Inc. was rebranded as Xperience Restaurant Group.

14 more underperforming Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants, mostly in northern California, were closed on December 26, 2016.[13] Among these were the Redding, Chico, South Lake Tahoe, Modesto, and Fresno locations in California.[14][15][16]

As of March 2017, there were 37 Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants located throughout the United States, mostly in northern California (15 locations). Many of these locations are owned by the company; however, some are franchisee-owned.[9][17][18][19][20] Franchised Chevys locations, a handful of restaurants in California, and a single unit in Orlando, Florida remain after the October, 2018 bankruptcy and asset sale.

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