Oh, well I haven’t eaten at Chili's in about 20 years, but I was just talking about going again last week.
Guess I’m not going to do that…
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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I’d much rather eat at Chotchkie’s. More flair.
I just realized this is Mike Judge himself
Brain has 37 pieces of flair.
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At $60 to $70 for 2 people to eat out? Fuck that.
Texas Roadhouse family meals (takeout only tho) is where it's at. Near me it's $60 for 4 steaks (28oz total), 2 1lb sides, about a dozen rolls, salad. Or $50 for the same but with 24 chicken tendies instead of steak.
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What kinda values could a restaurant chain that microwaves the shittiest food on the planet possibly have?
Excuse me, that's Applebees. Chili's only microwaves some things and deep fries others.
Other than the sign on the building, how can you even tell them apart?
Chips and salsa.
Well, for me, I spent 15 years in a very small metro in the panhandle of Florida. When the community theatre folks hung out, a lot of the regulars would go to Applebees. The "edgy"/"outcast" would tend to go to Chilis.
Frankly, the bigoted stuff from the submission aside, both are… fine enough places to hang out and get food. It's not great, but it's not terrible.
I liked the Chilis because the ribs were pretty decent. Not amazing, but decent enough. My wife appreciated their battered chicken tenders, until they got rid of them. She's autistic and that texture is better for her.
Applebees was more boring to me. I can't tell you off the top of my head what I ever ate there, but it was alright.
In both cases it was more about hanging out with friends.
So really, to answer your question: Meh. lol.
And yes, I know it was rhetoical, but I have ADHD, so I answered anyway. :)
As a lurker who also has ADHD your non-answer here gave me a laugh 😆
Is it part of either/both business’ strategy to open a new location in the same town/strip as the rival location? The Applebees-vs-Chilis experience rings true for me as well. Give the American populace a way to differentiate themselves with extremely similar options lol
So there's actually four separate reasons for this phenomenon that is partly purposeful and partly accidental/happenstance:
- Imagine two ice cream vendors on a busy beach. One opens up in the middle of everything. Another one sees there's room for competition, but where to open? Do they go down the beach a ways? Well, if they do, they limit the customers to half of the beach. So they open up next door, also right in the middle of the peak crowd.
- Imagine going to a Chilis or Applebees and finding out there's a half hour wait for a table. Would you go 20 minutes down the road to the other place to see if there's a line? But you might cross the street if they were closer.
- Some smaller chains will specifically try to build around larger chains in the hopes that people going to the more well-known chain will see the other chain and be more likely to change their mind and eat there instead
- For cities with zoning, they often try to create centers of commerce, which means there's a limited number of areas that restaurants can open, so this cluesters everyone up as well
So whether there's an active attempt to open them near each other, it's going to naturally happen. :)
And I do think it's fascinating (and highly disappointing) that a lot of these places that started out with a particular vision have sort of sysco'd themselves into bland average boringness, just to eke out a little more profit for the shareholders. meh.
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My expectation of "edible food" doesn't align with what Chili's offers, which is why I don't go there. Everyone has their beliefs, I suppose.
Too easy to boycott.
So easy, I’ve been accidentally boycotting them for decades.
Based on this thread, it sounds like people with enough brainpower to know what pronouns are don’t eat there anyway, so this might actually make Chile’s money.
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I guess this is how I learn that Chili's is actually still in business
a trans man who was assigned female at birth
Isn't that what "trans man" means?
They gotta dumb it down for people, it's a good thing for informing.
If you just say "trans man" at a bunch of people, a significant portion of them will think you mean "a man who has decided they are trans and wants to be a woman". Because recognizing the gender someone identifies as is catering to their delusion or whatever bigots tell themselves to get by.
Before all the recent hullabaloo in recent years, I couldn't remember which meant which way - because I could give two fucks - just let them be who they are.
Now I've had to learn a lot (which I don't resent learning) so I can help stand up for their rights, and it's really easy to remember. But it's sort of like "biweekly" or "semiweekly" before you actually pay attention - both of those terms mean both something that happens twice per week or once every other week (although I tihnk biweekly more strongly implies twice per week, but it can absolutely be used for both).
I suppose that's true that even people who aren't necessarily bigots can struggle to understand what being trans is. My boomer parents aren't transphobic, but they do struggle with the concept that when a person realizes they're trans it retroactively means that they were always the gender they currently go by, even if they themselves didn't know it at the time. I got into an argument with my dad when he kept calling the child of someone he knew "he" when talking about her in the past before she came out as trans. I tried to explain that, no, she was a she then as well, but didn't know it herself and presented as a he, but he just didn't get it.
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A lot of people are still just not familiar with the terminology surrounding all things trans.
If you just say “trans man” many of them don't go into a weird mental gymnastics session to justify their prejudice, they just go "which one was that again?".
I've been there myself a few years ago and since I learned have explained it to several people who couldn't be further from bigots, they were just not in much personal contact with trans people.
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I guess they could be intersex? But mostly probably just to make the article accessable to boomers which I think is a fine thing to do.
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Why would a massively corporate chain have personal values and lifestyles? Just sell your shitty burgers.
Because an expensive consultant sold the idea to them.
The casual dining chain, which is owned by publicly traded Brinker International, professes to believe in “a culture of belonging,” telling job applicants that it welcomes “those of all genders, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities, religions, age and backgrounds.”
“We celebrate these differences through a culture of belonging where individual strengths and stories are respected and valued,” ChilisJobs.com asserts. “We’re proud to be a community-oriented meeting place and want everyone to feel welcome at Chili’s.”
I don't understand the utility of proclaiming your company to be a bastion for the people you clearly hate. Why entice them to become employees just to fire them? And in firing them, receive a tidal wave of bad press and probable lawsuits? 🤷
It’s a kind of rainbow washing. Under Capitalism, queer money is still money, so they’ll happily take that while pushing us under the bus at every meaningful opportunity.
One thing you need to understand about chain restaurants is that they are not all micromanaged by a central corporation. They are franchises. Usually, a franchisee pays for a license and owns one or more stores in a region. They have certain standards they need to meet to fulfill their franchise requirements, but small day-to-day decisions about how to run the store are up to them. Chili's corporate might espouse all those values they list in their talking points (though I've personally seen companies turn their values on a dime when they think it is hurting their bottom-line). But they probably have very limited, if any direct input on hiring/firing decisions at a single restaurant. At most, they might step in and pressure the franchise owner to reverse this decision if they think it hurts the brand image.
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Fuck chilis and fuck chic fil a, I have never ordered either and will never order either
It's entirely possible the employees sucked, but for Chili's to fire them the way they did is nuts. The fact that there's a pattern means there's gonna be some fat paychecks going around.
I'll continue my tradition of not eating at Chili's in support.
Did they think they could get away with this. Firing someone because of their personal life. crazy.
They haven't yet not gotten away with it. I don't maintain much optimism that they won't.
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personal values
Meaning you're not a fundamentalist extremist christofascist. That is a compliment, actually, even though they don't know it
Lifestyle
Yes, I too would do multiple very expensive and very painful operations and god knows how many therapy sessions for fun, because that's my style, baby!
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I guess I'll continue to never patronize a Chili's. Wtfuck is "Chili's" any way? Is it someone's nickname? Do they have a chili that owns things?
Imagine if there was a place that served shit for food. But then, blend in a bit of cumin, some smoked paprika, chile powder, and corn in with the shit.
Thats a chiles.
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No, you're confused. Chili owns you, whether you're an employee or customer. You belong to them. Chili's. Eat fresh
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I always see stories like this and I think to myself I can't even boycott them because I wasn't eating there already. Not that I can really afford to eat out anywhere though...
Were they a fascist pedophile?
Monday, I drove my wife and youngest to Omaha to adopt a puppy (golden retriever). We were going to eat at Chili's because at least it's a known food. Well, the person we were getting the dog from was available early, so we did drive through.
Fucking bullet dodged.
Puppy tax https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/cc8f648a-d39a-4f15-899d-dc59475ea7a2.webp
Don't associate pictures of your children with your anonymous profile!
so chili is not so spicy, it ha to adhere to bland taste of right wingers.
It's shit "food" too.
Chili's has no values, like any other corporate food slop provider. If people would pay, they'd use actual babies in the ribs.
I haven't been in a Chili's in forever, and I don't expect to go again. So I'm going to avoid everything from Brinker International [NYSE: EAT] now (Chili's and Maggiano's Little Italy), and I'm thinking that I might sell some of it short too.
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