Chili's

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Chili's Grill & Bar
Type Wholly owned subsidiary
Industry Restaurant
Genre Casual dining
Founded March 13, 1975 (1975-03-13)
Founder(s) Larry Lavine
Headquarters 6820 LBJ Freeway
Dallas, Texas, U.S. 75240
Area served Worldwide
Key people Kelli Valade, COO
Products American cuisine
Tex-Mex cuisine
Parent Brinker International, Inc.
Website chilis.com

References: [1][2]

Chili's Grill & Bar is a restaurant chain founded by Larry Lavine. The chain has more than 1400 casual dining restaurants, mostly located in the United States and Canada. Chili's is owned and operated by Brinker International, Inc..

Contents

History [edit]

Chili's first location, a converted postal station on Greenville Ave. in Dallas, Texas, opened in 1975 (this location moved to a new building near the same site in 1981, and was shut down in 2007).[3] 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.[4]

In 1983, Lavine sold the company to restaurant executive Norman E. Brinker, formerly of the Pillsbury restaurant group that owned Bennigan's.[4] Chili's now has locations in 49 U.S. states (excludes Alaska), 30 international locations and two territories.

Menu [edit]

Chili's in Khobar, Saudi Arabia
Chili's in Lisbon, Portugal

Chili's serves American food influenced by Tex-Mex cuisine.

In addition to their regular menu, the company offers a nutritional menu, allergen menu, and vegetarian menu. They also offer a veggie burger (non-vegan) that is supplied by the Kellogg Company.[5]

Advertising [edit]

"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.[6]

In 2008, the chain aired parody ads for "P. J. Bland's", a fictional restaurant chain with cardboard foods.[7]

In 2013, Chili's used Wendy Rene's Stax single Bar-B-Q in their TV commercial.

International locations [edit]

Contemporary design for a new Chili's restaurant built in 2009
Countries where Chili's is found
Asia Europe Middle East North America / Caribbean Central / South America
India Germany Bahrain Canada Brazil
Indonesia Russia Kuwait Dominican Republic Costa Rica
Japan Syria Mexico Colombia
Malaysia Lebanon Puerto Rico Ecuador
Philippines United Arab Emirates United States El Salvador
Singapore Oman Guatemala
South Korea Qatar Honduras
Taiwan Jordan Peru
Saudi Arabia Venezuela

Legal problems [edit]

In October 2008, Chili's Australia 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.[8]

References [edit]

  1. ^ Brinker International, Inc. (June 29, 2011). "FY 2011 10-K". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved April 17, 2012. 
  2. ^ Brinker International, Inc. (June 29, 2011). "2011 Annual Report to Shareholders". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved April 17, 2012. 
  3. ^ Brinker publication (October 2007). "Brinker 2007 Corporate report". Brinker International, Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-19. 
  4. ^ a b "Brinker International". Answers.com. Retrieved 2007-12-19. 
  5. ^ "Chili's Restaurant Menu". Brinker International. 2012. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 
  6. ^ "10 Songs most likely to get stuck in your head.(The Book of Tens)". Advertising Age. December 2004. Retrieved 2008-06-24. [dead link]
  7. ^ "Chili’s Spoofs Restaurant Ads with ‘P.J. Bland’s’ Campaign". Burger Business. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2009-04-28. 
  8. ^ "Fast food chain off the boil.". Illawarra Mercury. 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-26. 

External links [edit]