Last week we learned Dixie House’s parent company, Restaurants Acquisition I, Llc., filed for bankruptcy, but today Dixie House’s manager Scott Pendleton seems confident this isn’t the end of Dixie House.
“Last time I talked with corporate, they told us they’re going to keep this store open, and as many stores as are open, and once they get through the bankruptcy they’ll open more stores,” Pendleton says.
Dixie House still makes a profit, he points out. So if the parent company intends to ride out the bankruptcy, Dixie House in Lakewood will be one of the last locations to go.
“We’ve been here forever,” Pendleton concludes. “This is considered the premier spot of the company.”
Dixie House is in the Black-eyed Pea family of chain restaurants, which was launched by well-known Dallas restauranteur Gene Street in 1975. He sold the chain back in 1986 and “never looked back,” he says.
After going through several owners in the last decades, the chain ended up with Restaurants Acquisition I, Llc., although that hasn’t stopped the financial bleeding and downsizing.
In 2008 we reported the number of restaurants had been drastically reduced from 130 across the south to 48 locations in only Texas in Colorado. Today Black-eyed Pea lists 15 locations on its website.
Last week Gene Street found out about the bankruptcy the same way the rest of us did — via an article in the Star-Telegram — so unfortunately he doesn’t have any insider information into what will become of the beloved restaurant in Lakewood Shopping Center. Although he says he’s “very sad” to hear the news, he can merely speculate as to the cause of the bankruptcy and the company’s future.
“It’s probably been a long time with too many owners,” he says. “This last group tried to pull some rabbits out of their hats, but there have been a lot of owners over the last 40 years.”
He hopes Dixie House will stay open, at least.
“It’s an important part of the Lakewood community,” he says.
