One-price Mexican restaurant shuts its S.A. locations

Cervecería Chapultepec, the Mexico-based chain of one-price restaurants that opened two San Antonio locations in 2020, has closed both those sites.

The announcement came abruptly on Chapultepec’s San Antonio Facebook page Monday. An employee reached at the location on Texas 151 just outside Loop 410 confirmed that the location on East Elmira Street near the Pearl closed last Sunday, while the Texas 151 location closed the week before. He offered no further details.

With Mexican-inspired tacos, margaritas, burgers, colorful cocktails, beers, tequila shots and much more, all priced at $3 each, Chapultepec drew large crowds in its early weeks at the East Elmira location, even during the height of the pandemic. The chain opened its second location on Texas 151 just a few months later.

But the resort-style party atmosphere of Chapultepec’s bar and patio drew some negative attention as well.

The formula failed to connect in an Express-News review in 2021, which asked, “Is it worth it? Yes and no. But mostly no. It’s a false economy. By the time the giddy thrill of your third $3 frozen daiquiri wears off, you’ve ordered six plates of belowaverage food and spent $27, as much as you might have paid for something better somewhere else.”

Last year, Cervecería Chapultepec was named in a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against a driver accused of being drunk and hitting a San Antonio bicyclist, alleging the driver had been drinking at Chapultepec before the incident.

With more than 120 locations across Mexico, Central America, South America and Spain, Chapultepec apparently no longer has a foothold in the United States. The only other U.S. location listed on its website, in McAllen, closed late last year, according to its Facebook page.

Mike Sutter/Staff file photo With the closing of Cervecería Chapultepec, including this site on East Elmira Street, the chain is no longer serving in the U.S.