Popular Mexican chain closes all restaurants, no bankruptcy yet | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Financial distress of Mexican restaurant chains has spilled over from 2024 into 2025, which has resulted in several dining businesses filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, closing locations, and some going out of business.

The most prominent Mexican chain to face economic hardship so far this year is Atlanta-based On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, which on March 4 filed for Chapter 11 protection, seeking to sell its assets to a prepetition lender.

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In 2024, some major Tex-Mex dining chains also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Tex-Mex chain Tijuana Flats Restaurants on April 19, 2024, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closed 11 of its locations, and sold the company to new owners after a strategic review that began in November 2023.

Then there’s Rubio’s Coastal Grill, which on June 5, 2024, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its debt and close 48 restaurants in California after a new state minimum wage law impacted its business.

Casual Mexican restaurant chain Uncle Julio’s is hoping to turn around its business as the Irving, Texas-based business in December 2024 sold its assets in a foreclosure auction to Sun Holdings. The chain, which has 37 locations, never filed for bankruptcy.

Uncle Julio’s, however, in March 2024 closed a Chicago location, blaming rising rent costs for shutting down.

Salty Iguana Mexican restaurant shut down operations after Kansas state officials seized company assets.

Image source&colon; Shutterstock

Salty Iguana closes all restaurants

And now popular Mexican dining chain Salty Iguana has closed all of its restaurant locations and ceased operations after the Kansas Department of Revenue seized all of the assets at two of the company’s locations in Lawrence and Prairie Village, Kan., on Feb. 26.

The Kansas-based restaurant chain, which at one time operated five Kansas City-area locations, said in a Facebook posting that the final day of operations at its last remaining location in Independence, Mo., was March 4.

More closings:

The state seized the company’s Lawrence and Prairie Village assets, which included bank accounts, on-site cash, business inventory, and personal property owned by the owner of the restaurants, and will sell the items at a public auction to recover over $205,000 owed to the state for sales and liquor drink taxes, according to a Department of Revenue statement.

The state said that the two Kansas restaurants were seized and closed after several failed attempts to collect the delinquent taxes.

“It’s with a heavy heart that we make the very difficult decision to permanently close Salty Iguana. This Tuesday (March 4) was our last day of business at the Independence location & we will not reopen our Prairie Village & Lawrence restaurants,” the company said in a March 5 Facebook post.

“After being in business for more than 30 years, we are so grateful to our amazing customers & staff that made Salty Iguana feel like home. We made so many happy memories, from beating the Guinness record for World’s Largest Nacho, to hosting KU Hawk Talk, all while serving your Salty favorites. We loved being a part of the Kansas City and Lawrence communities,” the post concluded.

The company said in a March 1 Facebook post that it had been working with the state to try to resolve issues at the Lawrence and Prairie Village locations. It said that the business had been waiting for two years for an Employee Retention Credit Refund from the Internal Revenue Service and hired a tax attorney to expedite the matter.

“The attorney is confident that we should receive the refund soon,” the post said.

Salty Iguana did not receive the refund in time to save its business, however. The owners have not said whether they will file for bankruptcy.