On the Border is down to just six restaurants. | Photo: Shutterstock.
The full-service Mexican chain On the Border earlier this month shut down its 27 remaining company-owned restaurants, as my colleague Joe Guszkowski reported. What at one point had been a 166-unit chain is now down to just six franchisee-owned locations.
In the process, the brand is joining a long line of full-service Mexican brands that have either called it quits altogether or reduced its holdings enough to do so.
Over the years, brands like Chi-Chi’s and Don Pablo’s have shut down altogether. And the bankruptcy filings among full-service Mexican brands over the past couple of decades is extensive, including On the Border, Abuelo’s, Chevy’s, El Torito, Acapulco, Z’Tejas, Casa Bonita, El Burro Loco, and Tallulah’s.
Last year, sales among the full-service Mexican segment declined 1.2%, according to data from the Technomic Top 500 Chain Restaurant Report. Only seafood performed worse.
Blame the rise of the limited-service Mexican restaurant. Those chains on the Top 500 grew 4.7% last year, for instance. And that was a moderately substandard year.
The simple fact is, tacos are readily available in every community, making it a hotly competitive market, from taco trucks to fast-casual behemoths like Chipotle, which in recent years became a Top 10 restaurant chain. Two of the 10 largest restaurant chains in the U.S. serve Mexican fare, including also Taco Bell. There are countless independent Mexican restaurants in the U.S., both limited-service and full-service.
Limited-service Mexican chains generated $35 billion in system sales in 2025, according to Technomic.
By contrast, full-service Mexican chains generated just $1.2 billion in sales. That number will undoubtedly go down this year.
On the Border’s decline reflects the shift in demand.
The chain peaked in 2007, when it operated 166 locations and generated nearly $461 million in system sales.
The chain’s average-unit volumes simply could not support the brand for long. The chain’s average-unit volumes were flat or down 14 of the past 20 years, according to Technomic, falling from a peak of $3.1 million in 2006 to less than $2 million in 2025. Last year’s volumes were less than half what they should have been had they simply kept pace with inflation.
Unsurprisingly, the company closed units. It shuttered restaurants in almost every year since 2007, but those closures accelerated since 2023, when the chain finished the year with 120 locations.
By contrast, Chipotle, which went public in 2006—when it generated more than $800 million in system sales—has grown into an $11.9 billion brand. Its average-unit volumes have nearly doubled over that timeframe, to $3.1 million.
The shift in demand toward limited-service brands is hardly limited to Mexican and reflects the overall decline of casual-dining chains.
The pizza business has almost wholesale shifted to delivery and takeout. Full-service pizza chains are now lumped with Italian brands that are far more prolific these days. Burgers have likewise shifted to the counter, fueling the growth of brands like Five Guys and Shake Shack at the expense of Ruby Tuesday and Red Robin.
Full-service restaurant chain sales have only averaged 1.7% growth over the past decade. That is well below inflationary rates.
Full-service Mexican brands helped to establish a taste for tacos in many markets, bringing to consumers unlimited chips and salsa, margaritas, and smothered burritos. And there is some clear nostalgia for such brands, as evidenced by the continued success of the one-unit Chi-Chi’s comeback in suburban Minneapolis.
But nostalgia only goes so far, and consumers have clearly shifted their taco consumption from dine-in to takeout. And it has made brands like On the Border, and many others like it, less relevant.
