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By MICHAEL SASSO
The Tampa Tribune
The Tia’s Tex-Mex restaurant chain is closing its doors nationwide.
Late Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Tia’s Restaurant Inc. issued a press release announcing that it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which leads to dissolution, and is closing its restaurants. Tias operates at least 11 restaurants in Florida, Texas and Maryland, including Tampa, St. Petersburg, Brandon and Clearwater.
A reporter’s calls to the chain’s four local restaurants went unanswered Wednesday.
According to Tia’s’ press release, the company shut down because of difficult economic times and rising industry costs. In its Chapter 7 documents, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Tia’s lists total assets of $12.8 million and total debts of $22.5 million. It lists its headquarters in Irving, Texas.
Tia’s’ press release said the company was founded with a single family restaurant in Lubbock, Texas, in 1986. At some point, Tennessee-based Ruby Tuesday Inc. came to own Tia’s, but in 2000 sold the company to another Tennessee company called Specialty Restaurant Group. The latter company, in turn, sold the 28 remaining Tia’s restaurants to an unnamed third party in 2003, according to financial documents filed by Ruby Tuesday.
Documents show that Ruby Tuesday still holds some of the leases on Tia’s restaurant property, but Ruby Tuesday has no other financial stake in the company, according to Ruby Tuesday executive Richard Johnson. Subsequent filings by Ruby Tuesday show that Tia’s’ current owner has defaulted on several of its subleases and that claims for payment have been made upon Ruby Tuesday.
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Posted by Brianna Sunkett, Bowie, MD on 09/30 at 09:54 PM
I was devasted to hear that Tia’s was closed. I was a Hostess at the Bowie, MD location. On Sunday (9/24/06), I put in for my leave until January and told management that I would be back that Friday for my last checks. When I got to school that following Tuesday, a friend of a co-worker told me that Tia’s was closed. I tried calling, but there is no answering machine or automated voice to connect you to corporate. I also went to their website, which is stil some-what running, but none of the links work. The sudden closing left so many employees at my Tia’s out of work. i can only imagine how bad it is at all of the others.