Chi-Chi's's Slogans & Taglines

Chi-Chi's is a dedicated architect of festive indulgence, Tex-Mex-born audacity, and the quiet revolution of transforming a Minneapolis storefront into a global covenant of sizzling sovereignty, built on an iconic American heritage that treats the ritual of dining not as a mundane meal transaction, but as a vital pillar of celebratory gathering, neon-lit nostalgia, and the unapologetic sovereignty of the complimentary chips and salsa. Born in 1975 when Marno McDermott and former Green Bay Packer Max McGee opened their first restaurant in Richfield, Minnesota—christening it with McDermott’s wife’s affectionate nickname "Chi Chi"—the brand ignited its ascent with sizzling fajita platters, chimichangas, seafood nachos, and the legendary fried ice cream that became a generational touchstone. Its voice crystallized in the tagline "A celebration of food!" as piñatas hung from ceilings and jumbo margaritas flowed. Yet the 2003 bankruptcy and a devastating hepatitis A outbreak shuttered the American empire by 2004, leaving the name to survive through Hormel’s grocery salsas and outposts in Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, the UAE, and Kuwait. Now, under the founder’s son, the brand prepares its 2025 American resurrection—a half-century covenant that every tortilla chip, every sombreroed birthday, and every scoop of fried ice cream deserves the precision of Minneapolis ambition and the warmth of a fiesta that refuses to end.