Another bar chain closing location after Chapter 11 bankruptcy | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Amid dips in the economy and many people watching what they spend on going out more carefully, a number of restaurant chains have filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2025.

The Illinois-based Italian-American restaurant chain Pinstripes most recently filed for Chapter 11 protection in September amid plans to sell its assets to Silverview Capital while other names to file for bankruptcy in 2025 include TGI Fridays, On The Border, Bertucci’s and casual dining seafood chain Red Lobster, which shut down 120 restaurants across the country since the start of the year.

Founded in Chicago in 1990 and later moving its headquarters to the Dallas suburb of Addison, the bar and restaurant chain Bar Louie filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2025. The filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware cited between $1 million and $10 million in assets and $50 million to $100 million in liabilities that, due to the rising cost of labor and operational costs, the owner company could not independently make a dent in. The restaurant and bar chain had filed for Chapter 11 protection once before in 2020.

Bar Louie to close restaurant in Arlington

The chain that at its peak had 134 locations across the U.S. whittled down its reach to just over 30 operating restaurants over the last five years. The latest location in the Dallas suburb of Arlington shut its doors earlier this month despite an earlier press release saying that existing Bar Louie locations would continue to “operate without interruption.”

This means that the only operating locations in North Texas are at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and the Toyota Music Factory concert venue in Irving.

The airport Bar Louie is located at DFW’s Terminal D from which most international flights take off. Positioned as a casual spot where travelers can try food with local Texas flair, the airport location sells signature margaritas as well as a streamlined menu of chicken, steak and salmon main plates, personal pizzas and nachos and various other Tex-Mex appetizers as well as a drink menu of signature margaritas.

When Bar Louie opened in 1990, it was a frontrunner in the gastrobar concept of serving food that is nicer than what is found at the typical establishment that people come to for drinks.

Bar Louie is a restaurant and bar chain with the most locations in Texas.

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Why is Bar Louie bankrupt? Changing restaurant landscape, growing food debts

At the time that it filed for bankruptcy back in March, Bar Louie listed debts of a respective $1.8 million and $590,000 to food vendors Edward Don & Co. and Produce Alliance LLC while also naming certain underperforming locations as bringing down its overall finances.

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While novel in the 1990s, the gastrobar concept has also struggled in recent years as diners increasingly move away from chain restaurants and toward independent ones with unique offerings. In April, upscale restaurant chain Italian Kitchen and Brio Italian Grille also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in five years over similar reasons of falling traffic numbers.

On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, another Texas-based casual dining chain offering a menu of fajitas and other Tex-Mes classics, also filed for bankruptcy protection last March.