Local Media Reminds Everyone Bricktown Abuelos Was Still Open…

We have sad news for fans of sad Mexican food.

Yesterday afternoon, the local media reminded everyone that the Bricktown Abuelo’s was still somehow open by reporting that it’s now permanently closed.

Yes, that’s right.

Bricktown Abuelo’s – one of the Brickyard’s original refurbished eateries that everyone forgot was still open for business – has gone the way of every other old-school Bricktown restaurant not named Bricktown Brewery and has closed its large, massive, heavy doors.

Via News 9:

Abuelo's Mexican Restaurant, a restaurant chain with locations across the United States, announced the closure of its Bricktown, Oklahoma City location.

According to a sign posted on the location's front entrance, the restaurant has closed, although no clear indication as to why has been provided.

Hmm. So they provided no clear indication of why the place closed? I’m not a rocket scientist or a tortilla maker, but could it be that Abuelo’s sucked and nobody wanted to eat there?

Seriously, I’m not trying to be mean, but when’s the last time you heard a friend say, “Mmmm. I’m hungry. Let’s go to Bricktown and eat at Abuelo’s!”

If it’s been within the last 20 years, you probably need new friends.

At its best, Abuelo’s was a “last resort” type of restaurant – the kind of place you go because it’s easy and probably not too busy. The food wasn’t hideous, but it also wasn’t good. It was just another run-of-the-mill chain Tex-Mex spot, probably not as bad as On The Border, but not as good as Ted’s, and far, far, far inferior to all the local family-owned places around town like Casa Perico, Abel’s or the dozens of spots Louis had reviewed over the years.

Although I was never an Abuelo’s fan – even when it was popular in the 1990s, I still preferred Nino’s, Chelino’s, and Monterey Jack’s – it is kind of bittersweet to see another relic from the chain restaurant boom of the 1990s close its doors.

For the spoiled youngin’s who don’t know better: long before the famed OKC Renaissance™ that turned the 405 into the minor league foodie mecca we are today, chain restaurants were all the rage. When we got a new one like Joe’s Crab Shack, Macaroni Grill, or Abuelo’s, it was a big deal that got a lot of local hype.

It’s nice to see those days are long gone, right?

Okay, so maybe we still, sadly, get excited about the arrival of a new chain restaurant, but at least Pappadeaux is decent and can help offset the loss of the Red Lobster on NW Expressway. Grandmothers will appreciate that, right?

Anyway, if you are, for some reason, an Abuelo’s fan, the good news is that there are still a couple of metro locations open. Well, at least for now.

Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.