[Gary K]

On The Border Restaurant at Spring Cypress & Champion Forest is closed. Sunday night, lights out, nobody home.

Every time I have been there it was busy. Although maybe not the best, still sad to see it go.

Anyone know what happened, and/or can contribute more info?

-Gary K

This post has been edited by Gary K: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 1:30 AM

[slash]

Poor food quality, rude and inattentive service, cleanliness was equal to a 15 year old restaurant, and the management seemed apathetic to it all. No surprise to me.

[mrfootball]

On The Border is borderline awful Mexican Food. They really shouldn't even try to open up restaurants in a market like Houston that has so many good Mexican restaurants. I would think they'd be better off peddling their bad Mexican Food out-of-state where people don't know any better.

[cnote]

mrfootball, on Monday, January 19th, 2009 @ 11:43am, said:

On The Border is borderline awful Mexican Food. They really shouldn't even try to open up restaurants in a market like Houston that has so many good Mexican restaurants. I would think they'd be better off peddling their bad Mexican Food out-of-state where people don't know any better.

I think they are quite good at peddling their bad food to out-of-staters....I always assumed the crowd there at the one on 290 and Spring Cypress to be people who just moved here from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado, etc. until they find the real deal at one of the various local establishments.

[pineda]

Sorry guys, but I gotta respectfully disagree with you here.

I thought On the Border was a great concept, the food was very innovative, not the same old cheese enchiladas/taco/queso puff plate stuff. I had eaten there several times and never thought the service lagged in any way. The servers were very knowledgeable, attentive and energetic. The decor was nice, the cleanliness seemed to be fine to me, I didn't do any kitchen tours. I thought the prices were very reasonable, and liked that anytime I went there, I seemed to see folks that I knew from the area. I liked the mojitas and the double-stacked quesadillas and especially liked the salsa verde.

I heard that the reason they left was that they just couldn't make enough profits off the basically dinner-only crowd. Most restaurants need to have good lunch crowds as well as dinner crowds and this location was just too residential.

I'll miss OTB, and guess I'll be heading back to my other local area favorite just down the road a bit.

I understand that the former tenant was a Mexican restaurant and that the next tenant is projected to be also.

This post has been edited by pineda: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 2:13 PM

[Gary K]

pineda, on Monday, January 19th, 2009 @ 2:12pm, said:

I'll miss OTB, and guess I'll be heading back to my other local area favorite just down the road a bit.

What is your other local area favorite?

Don't worry, it'll be just between you and me.

-Gary K

This post has been edited by Gary K: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 2:30 PM

[RedScare]

pineda, on Monday, January 19th, 2009 @ 1:12pm, said:

I heard that the reason they left was that they just couldn't make enough profits off the basically dinner-only crowd. Most restaurants need to have good lunch crowds as well as dinner crowds and this location was just too residential.

I'd be really, really surprised if this is the reason they closed. I would not be surprised if OTB did little lunch time business, only if that caused them to close. The more likely culprit would be low DINNER sales, and even more likely would be a crappy lease, creating a high threshold for breaking even. Chain restaurants like OTB routinely do 80% to 90% of their business at dinner. Lunch is almost always a loser, due to fewer customers, smaller portions (meaning smaller prices), and fewer alcoholic beverage sales. Often times, lunch is so pathetic that you wonder why they even open, but since all of the evening food prep is being done during the day, it does not cost much to put a few $2.13 an hour waiters out there and hope for the best.

OTB is a Brinker company, so it could run a long time on little to no profit...or even at a loss. However, if they got a crappy lease, it is a massive drain on resources, especially if this location was expected to be a big sales location, and only turned out decent.In that scenario, they might literally shut down one store to lose the lease, and open up a few blocks away on better terms. It can make that much of a difference. In this market, it would not surprise me at all if they were shedding bad leases.

[UrbaNerd]

OTB's basically a cheapo knockoff of Chilis. Oddly, it's owned by the same company! *Scratches head*

[TexasVines]

UrbaNerd, on Monday, January 19th, 2009 @ 2:17pm, said:

OTB's basically a cheapo knockoff of Chilis. Oddly, it's owned by the same company! *Scratches head*

not really Chilis and OTB have a pretty different menu....sadly Chilis is moving away from some of their past offerings

while I did not think OTB was horrible and the ones I had been to (rarely) were clean and the service was good....I think they were tricked up fru fru Mexican food that did stray too far away from the TexMex most Texans desire and they are better situated in other places that don't know any better and if you want real Mexican food (of various types) then probably no chain will do it

[Gary K]

It appears OTB closed 4 of their stores in the Houston area.

http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurant...ews/rsv4533.asp

-Gary K

[neonurse97]

They really need to close the one in Pearland. The food tastes like it was frozen then microwaved.

[Corbusier]

Gary K, on Monday, January 19th, 2009 @ 10:14pm, said:

It appears OTB closed 4 of their stores in the Houston area.

http://www.b4-u-eat.com/houston/restaurant...ews/rsv4533.asp

-Gary K

the signage has been removed from the one at I-10 and Bunker Hill. open for less than a year.

[UrbaNerd]

The Rosenberg location has been closed down as well.
Nothing of value was lost.

This post has been edited by UrbaNerd: Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 3:54 PM

[rs1976]

This restaurant chain sucks!!!

[dalparadise]

I remember liking their first iteration here 20 years ago. I believe the location where Sullivan's is on Westheimer was an On the Border. Of course, I was 20 years old then and probably didn't know much better. The fact that I could get a margarita without ID was enough for me. they left this market about 15 years ago and reinvented the concept.

I haven't been to one since they re-entered the market. Looks like I may have missed my chance...

[chamberscreek]

dalparadise, on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 @ 4:31am, said:

I remember liking their first iteration here 20 years ago. I believe the location where Sullivan's is on Westheimer was an On the Border. Of course, I was 20 years old then and probably didn't know much better. The fact that I could get a margarita without ID was enough for me. they left this market about 15 years ago and reinvented the concept.

I haven't been to one since they re-entered the market. Looks like I may have missed my chance...

I haven't dined at one in many years, but I ate there a couple of times in the D/FW area around 20 years ago, and they WERE pretty decent then. Guess they went downhill with their expansion...

[memebag]

I ate at the one that used to be on Westheimer about 18 years ago and all I remember is how salty it was.

[barracuda]

One of the worst meals of my life was at an OTB. Worst!

[RedScare]

chamberscreek, on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 @ 2:20pm, said:

I haven't dined at one in many years, but I ate there a couple of times in the D/FW area around 20 years ago, and they WERE pretty decent then. Guess they went downhill with their expansion...

I used to eat at the one in Fort Worth back in the late 80s-early 90s, too. They really weren't that bad then. This would have been before Brinker bought the chain. I guess the Brinker people ruined it.