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27-438: Zantigo was founded in 1969 as Zapata by Marno McDermott, who would later be the co-founder of another Mexican chain, Chi-Chi's . In 1974, McDermott sold Zapata to Heublein , owners at the time of KFC . (Zapata's home Mexican food product line was renamed Ortega at this time.) In 1976, the chain of Zapata Mexican fast-food restaurants was renamed Zantigo. The chain grew rapidly in this period. Television ads for Zantigo featured

54-549: A Mexican-American narrator with an accent who ended the commercials with the tag line, "Zantigo – you'll be back, amigo." In 1977, it was reported that average annual sales for a Zantigo location, $ 300,000, exceeded those for a Taco Bell store, $ 230,000, and the Louisville-based Zantigo was eager to challenge Taco Bell in the market. But by 1980, KFC had put expansion plans for Zantigo on hold in order to focus on its core Kentucky Fried Chicken business. Heublein

81-514: A Middle Eastern cucumber and onion salad, an eggplant salad, and a mixture of pinto and Northern beans. The only dessert initially available was frozen yogurt. Everything on the initial menu had relative low calories when compared to offerings at other chicken restaurants. On the evening of March 26, 1990, Kenneth Berg, a retired real estate broker from New York, stopped at the Beverly Boulevard location to get dinner, particularly

108-587: A former Zantigo manager and his brother, had opened three restaurants in Minnesota by 1996 and currently has four locations in Minnesota: Bloomington, Fridley, St. Paul, and Woodbury. The newest restaurant, an intact former Zapata/Zantigo structure, is on West 7th Street and Davern in St. Paul. Chi-Chi%27s Chi-Chi's can either refer to a defunct Mexican food restaurant chain founded in

135-568: A little salsa." Chi-Chi's last owner while the company was still in business in the United States and Canada was Prandium Inc., which had filed for bankruptcy several times, including in 1993 as Restaurant Enterprises Group Inc. and again in 2002 as Prandium. On October 8, 2003, Chi-Chi's and Koo Koo Roo , another Prandium subsidiary, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy themselves. The flagship Chi-Chi's restaurant in Richfield, Minnesota

162-552: A meal for him to take home while he watched the 62nd Academy Awards. Impressed by the quality of the food, Berg met with the Badalians and later invested US$ 2,500,000 as a silent partner , eventually investing more and taking control of the restaurant. The following year, the company became public with its stock being traded on NASDAQ under the stock ticker KKRO. The company had 15 locations in February 1992. Two years later,

189-693: Is the only remnant left of a much larger chain. The company was briefly owned by Tumbleweed, Inc. The chain also once operated in the United States and Canada but exited those countries in 2004, and closed their German and Belgian locations in 2022. Chi-Chi's was founded by restaurateur Marno McDermott (his wife's nickname was "Chi Chi" ) and former Green Bay Packers player Max McGee . The first restaurant opened at 7717 Nicollet Avenue South, in Richfield, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis ) in early August, 1976. McDermott had previously founded

216-497: The Chi-Chi's at Beaver Valley Mall near Monaca, Pennsylvania , about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Pittsburgh. Chi-Chi's settled the hepatitis A lawsuits by July 2004. At the time the suits were settled, Chi-Chi's had only 65 restaurants, fewer than half of the number of four years prior. In August 2004, Outback Steakhouse bid $ 42.5 million for the rights to buy its choice of Chi-Chi's 76 properties, but did not purchase

243-547: The Chi-Chi's brand also include dips, tortillas, tortilla chips and taco seasoning mixes. Chi-Chi's branded food products are usually found in major supermarkets and discount stores. In April 2021, MegaMex hired a TikTok personality to be their Chi-Chi's brand ambassador for that year's Cinco de Mayo advertising period. Koo Koo Roo Koo Koo Roo was an American fast casual restaurant chain specializing in charbroiled chicken founded in 1988 by Los Angeles-based restaurateurs Mike and Ray Badalian. The name "Koo Koo Roo"

270-484: The Chi-Chi's name, operations, or recipes. On the weekend of September 18, 2004, Chi-Chi's closed all 65 of its remaining restaurants. Outback had hoped to convert many of the properties to its own restaurants, but instead eventually sold the majority of the properties to Kimco Realty Corporation , a real estate investment trust company in New Hyde Park, New York . In 2002, Francis Leroy of Belgium purchased

297-746: The European chain's official website in January 2022 showed that the company had three locations left, two in Liege and one in Brugge, all in Belgium. There is no evidence that the website was active much beyond May 2022. The Brugge location announced on Facebook that it was closing in October 2022. In 1987, Hormel Foods acquired the rights to produce and market Chi-Chi's branded salsa and related products in

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324-598: The October 1, 1986 announcement. The conversion was complete by late 1987 and the Zantigo name disappeared. In many cases, the existing Zantigo stores were in better locations or in better physical condition than nearby Taco Bell locations. So, most Zantigo locations were rebranded as Taco Bell and the nearby Taco Bell stores closed. This led to the Taco Bell chain adopting many of the distinctive architectural details of

351-609: The United States in 1976, which continued in Europe only as a single restaurant after the North American owner declared bankruptcy and folded in 2004, or to its namesake brand of Mexican food grocery products produced and marketed when the original North American restaurant chain owner sold the rights to use its name on said products in 1987. Chi-Chi's is a single Mexican restaurant currently operating in Vienna, Austria , that

378-449: The United States. By 1996, Hormel was making $ 60-million annually from this product line. In 2009, Hormel formed a 50%-50% joint venture with Mexico-based food manufacturer Herdez Del Fuerte called MegaMex Foods, LLC, to manufacture and distribute Mexican food products in the United States. The Chi-Chi's brand was placed in this new company along with other related food brands such as Herdez, La Victoria and Búfalo brands. Besides salsas,

405-530: The Zantigo design into new Taco Bell restaurant buildings. Zantigo had several unique menu items, including the Chilito, the Taco Burrito, and Chips 'n' Cheese. Of these, the Chilito was carried over by Taco Bell in former Zantigo markets and was promoted to a chain-wide item, later renamed "Chili-cheese Burrito". A new Zantigo chain, offering much of the original menu and under new ownership consisting of

432-626: The Zapata fast-food Mexican chain, which later became Zantigo . From 1977 to 1986, the chain was run by former KFC executive Shelly Frank . When Frank took leadership, the chain moved its headquarters to his hometown of Louisville . By March 1995, the chain had grown to 210 locations. In 2001, Chi-Chi's applied for a trademark on the word "salsafication" but was denied by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board . The company's slogans were "A celebration of food" and, later, "Life always needs

459-572: The acquisition of the Koo Koo Roo and Hamburger Hamlet chains, Family Restaurants Inc., renamed itself Koo Koo Roo Enterprises and then Prandium Inc. a few months later. Prandium was the parent company for the Koo Koo Roo, El Torito, Chi-Chi's and Hamburger Hamlet chains. By January 1999, Koo Koo Roo had 40 locations. In 2003, the Prandium subsidiaries Koo Koo Roo, Chi-Chi's, and Hamburger Hamlet, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At

486-486: The brand will officially return under new ownership led by Daniel Farasat, independent of his real estate firm, Tiger West Capital LLC. New brick-and-mortar locations are planned to open beginning in late 2025. In the 2010 film Get Him to the Greek , Sean Combs ’ character, Sergio Roma, declares at a business meeting that he will remain financially secure because he owns twenty-one Koo Koo Roos, peculiarly never visited in

513-464: The company was acquired by Family Restaurants Inc., the owner of Chi-Chi's and El Torito Mexican restaurants, in 1998 for $ 143 million in stock. At the time of the announcement, Koo Koo Roo had 38 locations in California, Florida, and Nevada. Before the acquisition was completed, Koo Koo Roo sold off its Arrosto Coffee Co. and Color Me Mine chains. Immediate after Family Restaurants completed

540-487: The film. This is unintentionally ironic due to the closure of the restaurant chain. In 2009 film I Love You, Man , Sydney Fife mentions having leftover Koo Koo Roo at his residence. In "The Rainbow of Her Reasons" of season 5, episode 6 of Six Feet Under (HBO TV series) , Ruth asks her husband if she should order Koo Koo Roo for him. In "Santa v. Monica" of season 3, episode 11 of Girlfriends , William asks his girlfriend Monica why they can't do Koo Koo Roo for

567-538: The master franchise for Belgium, and later the master franchises for Europe in 2008, North Africa in 2011, and China in 2012. The European-based company tried to expand into Denmark in 2011 but no reliable citation can be found when the Danish restaurants were closed. In the first half of 2015, the chain in Belgium had to close five under-performing restaurants. Chi-Chi's expanded into Austria by opening their first restaurant in Vienna in 2018. The last snapshot of

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594-406: The number of locations had dropped to 8. In a bid to diversify the company, Koo Koo Roo launched a coffee bar chain called Arrosto Coffee Co. and acquired a color-your-own-ceramics chain called Color Me Mine in 1996. The following year, Koo Koo Roo acquired the bankrupted 14-outlet Hamburger Hamlet chain for US$ 11.5 million. After suffering financial problems during the previous three years,

621-541: The other on Beverly Boulevard close to the Beverly Center . The brothers opened their first restaurant in 1988 on west Sixth Street near Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles. The restaurant served skinless chicken that was marinated in vegetable juices and char-broiled over open flames and served with a fold-able Middle Eastern inspired flatbread that they called "Koo Koo Roo bread." The only sides available were

648-410: The time of the filing, Koo Koo Roo had 28 locations, down from 38 in 2001. As the result of the filing, the company was acquired by Magic Brands . Three years later, the number of locations dropped to 13 before Magic Brands closed an additional 10 locations. Luby's acquired Koo Koo Roo and its remaining 3 locations in 2010 after parent Magic Brands filed for bankruptcy. In 2024, it was announced that

675-407: Was acquired by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1982. Following the 1985 takeover by Reynolds of Nabisco , the new company, RJR Nabisco , divested itself of many businesses. In 1986, KFC was sold to PepsiCo for $ 850 million. Since Pepsi already owned a national Mexican food chain, Taco Bell , the decision was made to close or convert all existing Zantigo restaurants, of which there were 82 as of

702-595: Was an onomatopoeic reference to the crow of a rooster . After a series of expansions and ownership changes, in which Koo Koo Roo struggled for profitability throughout the 1990s, the last location in Santa Monica, California , closed in 2014. In 2021, Luby's Restaurants, Inc. sold the Koo Koo Roo brand to an independent third party, owned and controlled by Daniel Farasat. The Badalian brothers originally ran two locations in Los Angeles, one in Koreatown and

729-517: Was put up for sale in October 2003. In November 2003, a month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Chi-Chi's was hit with the largest hepatitis A outbreak in American history, with at least four deaths and 660 other victims of illness in the Pittsburgh area, including high school students who caught the disease from the original victims. The hepatitis was traced back to green onions at

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