Chevys Fresh Mex

Chevys Inc.

Type	Wholly owned subsidiary
Industry	Casual dining restaurant
Founded	1986 (1986) Alameda, California, U.S.[1]
Founder	Warren Simmons[2]
Headquarters	Cypress, California[3], U.S.
Number of locations	38 (as of 2017-04-15)[4]
Area served	United States
Key people	Charles Rinker, President Nick Mayer, SVP Operations Steven Tanner, CFO
Products	Mexican-style cuisine
Revenue	$65.1 million (2007)
Owner	Real Mex Restaurants
Number of employees	3,000 (2007)[5]
Parent	Real Mex Restaurants[6]
Website	www.chevys.com

Chevys Fresh Mex is an American chain of Mexican-style casual dining restaurants located in the United States. The chain was founded in 1986 by Warren Simmons in Alameda, California.^[7] The chain's headquarters are currently located in Cypress, California.^[8][9] The chain is owned by Real Mex Restaurants, Inc.

History

A Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant in April 2001.

An Eden Prairie, Minnesota Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant in November 2006.

The chain was founded in 1981 by Warren Simmons,^[10] when he opened the first restaurant in Alameda, California.^[11] 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.^[12]

However, business was poor at the Rio Bravo locations, and in 2003 Chevys' executives filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection.^[10] 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.^[6] 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.

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

Restaurants

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., ^{[11][17][18][19][20]}

Products

The chain sells a variety of Mexican-style foods, including tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, fruit-flavored margaritas, alcoholic beverages, fajitas, tortillas, enchiladas, and burritos.^[11][21] Approximately 70 percent of Chevys revenue comes from dinner sales, while lunch accounts for roughly 30 percent of sales. Most of their sales, however, come from their extensive array of cocktails and alcoholic beverages.^[22]

References