In the better-late-than-never category of news, the original Chili’s restaurant at Greenville and Meadow was demolished last week. My wife and I drove by Saturday afternoon, and it was all over but the twisted metal and crumbled cement.
According to Brinker’s website, the restaurant first opened in 1975, when it began selling burgers for $1.50 (check out the old pictures and menu). My first visit there was in 1979, when I was interning with the Dallas Morning News and sweating through a summer in Dallas while driving around in a car without air-conditioning. My then-roommate, Dallas native and fellow Northwestern alum Steve Kenny took me there. Over the years, I dropped quite a few dollars there, eating primarily Rojo burgers and downing chips and hot sauce (I could never really get into the chili, though). Despite the catchy jingle, I never did try the Baby-Back Ribs, either.
The building had been vacant for years, like a lot of that strip on Greenville from Meadow to Walnut Hill. According to Steve Brown with the DMN, the Chili’s building was razed to make way for a 7-Eleven.
It’s not like the green and red wood building was particularly historic or architecturally significant. It’s just kind of sad to the place go. (To see a larger view, just click on the photos.)
