TEXARKANA, Texas — The On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina on St. Michael Drive will close Friday, multiple employees of the restaurant confirmed on social media. And it’s not just Texarkana.
The entire Tex-Mex chain appears to be shutting down. Multiple restaurant managers across Texas and nationwide told Chron on Thursday that their locations, along with all other On The Border restaurants, will close after Friday. “After Friday we are permanently closing,” one manager told the outlet.
According to Chron’s reporting, individual restaurants were being told at different times depending on their place in the company hierarchy, and some managers had not yet heard the news.
The On The Border inside Sikes Senter Mall in Wichita Falls is also set to close, a regional manager confirmed to NewsChannel 6 in Wichita Falls.
The shutdown ends a 44-year run for the Dallas-born brand and comes barely a month after its new owner declared the chain’s comeback. On The Border filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025 with more than $25 million in debt, closing 77 underperforming restaurants across 24 states. Houston-based Pappas Restaurants, the family-owned group behind Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen and Pappasito’s Cantina, bought the chain at a bankruptcy auction that May.
On May 1 of this year, Pappas formally welcomed On The Border into its portfolio, touting a sweeping menu overhaul and promising to honor the brand’s heritage while evolving it for loyal guests old and new.
Instead, locations began going dark within weeks. The Longview restaurant near Longview Mall closed without warning on May 22 after nearly 10 years in business. The chain’s last Colorado Springs location, its final Maryland restaurant and a suburban Chicago location all closed in mid-May. “Closing this restaurant will allow us to focus our time and resources on our other locations and the continued success of the brand,” Christina Pappas, chief marketing officer for Pappas Restaurants, said in a statement at the time of the Longview closing.
The Texarkana restaurant at 4300 St. Michael Dr. was still operating Wednesday, and no closure signs had been posted. Pappas Restaurants has not publicly commented on the chain-wide shutdown.
On The Border opened its first restaurant in Dallas in 1982 and grew to more than 150 locations at its peak.
TXKtoday has reached out to On The Border for comment and will update this story as more information becomes available.