Comments on: Chili’s Memories

By: Lynette

Lynette — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:01:40 +0000

When I heard that the original Chili’s was closing it made me very sad. I was a waitress there from 1981 to 1988. Chili’s paid for my College education @ North Texas State as well as my expenses during that time. I was a GREAT place to work! Those were very happy years – and during those years many nights I would get off and go down to Snuffer’s on lower Greenville until it closed with other Chilis employees. (Pat Snuffer had originally worked @ Chili’s then opened the original Snuffer’s.) Snuffer’s was much smaller then than it is today. Sometimes we headed down to the Greenville Avenue Bar & Grill.

All of the comments above are true as I now live in Coppell but am a native Dallasite & miss the nostagia of the old area. I grew up about 10 minutes from this Restaurant. I dined many times @ Railhead & Randy Tarr – and also babysat for Phil Bovis’ 5 children. His parents were Lou & Ann Bovis who were the original owners of LouAnn’s on Lover’s Lane – far before it burned down. One other place not mentioned was one of my favorites – Bowley & Wilson’s on Greenville Ave. I never went to the restroom during one of their shows! It’s all very sad that the only true Restaurant left of the originals in that vicinity is Campisi’s Egyptian – and hopefully it will always remain on Mockingbird Lane. Time has flown by but I will always remember those memorable days…

By: Bill Ferris

Bill Ferris — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:22:40 +0000

Randy Tarr was the top restaurant in that area. Nothing in Dallas has been as popular since it’s zenith. There is no way any Dallas nightspot could now pull in big names to a small venue like that. Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, Lou Rawls, David Alan Coe to name a few. So many of those old restaurants in Vickery were borrowed from and duplicated in what I think of as the Dallasification of American dining. Many of those food concepts popular today across America were born in Dallas.

Maison Orleans, PTI, Railhead, Chilis, Lock Stock and Barrel, Lily Langtrey’s, Captain Cooks, Don the Beachcomber’s. All had unique things about them that were “first’s”.

By: JKR

JKR — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:50:39 +0000

Is it true Larry Lavine’s ex father in law is Carroll Shelby?

LouAnn’s, Vickery Park, Deuback’s Skating Rink, The Filling Station, The Railhead and now Chili’s — yikes — An era which climaxed in The Randy Tar Days is gone. If Chili’s had just kept that old building — something On The Border should have also done – people would have been making pilgrimages for so many years that the place couldn’t afford to shut down.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:15:14 +0000

I ate at Chili’s more while living for a year in Egypt than I have in the last 10 years in Dallas.

By: Bill Ferris

Bill Ferris — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:17:42 +0000

I remember whan Larry Lavine bought Louann’s nightclub at the corner of Lovers and Greenville(where Central Market is now located). I think it burned soon after. He opened(in 1973) a themed restaurant called “Kitty Hawk” which had a lifesize replica of the Wright Brothers airplane hanging from the ceiling.

I think Chili’s original building was called Glen Lakes Kanter Klub. It was a horse stable type place. This was before Royal Oaks CC was built and you could ride a horse from Meadow Road down the creek bottom to White Rock Lake.

By: Smito

Smito — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:47:33 +0000

Before Chili’s, the original building was home to a bar that I believe was called Alfie’s. Beer and hot dogs were cheap. Unshelled peanuts were free and after the treat, you dropped the shells on the floor.