No More Tacos From On The Border on Chipman Road

If you're a fan of On The Border I have disappointing news. The Kansas City Star reports that the Tex-Mex chain has closed three of their four Kansas City area locations including the one off Highway 50 at the Chipman Road exit.

In addition to the location on Chipman Road in Lee's Summit, the restaurant also closed its Northland location on Roanridege Road in Barrywoods Crossing and the one in Independence on Jackson Drive.

According to the article in the Star, the Kansas City market hasn't been a good one for the restaurant. They entered the market in the mid-90s with a location on Country Club Plaza, followed by restaurants in Leawood, Olathe, and Lawrence all of which closed. Additionally, the chain had a location in Joplin that was also closed.

For me, it's another restaurant chain I enjoyed with my late wife that's quickly turning into nothing more than a memory. We ate at the Lee's Summit location a couple of times. Not to mention we regularly ate at one in Aurora, Illinois. I remember celebrating my birthday there one cold February evening. As well as one of her birthdays there in the spring. I remember a double date there too, one time.

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As for the Chipman Road location, I remember going a couple of times when I'd take some time off from the station. We'd make a day of it. Do some shopping. Hit the Target. Maybe do some record shopping.

It's not the only place that seems to be slowly phasing itself out of the restaurant business that Kathy and I loved. Our favorite restaurant ever, the Italian-themed Spaghetti Warehouse seems pretty close to dead. We lived through the closure of the location we went to for many dates, near the On The Border, in Aurora, Illinois. Then 15 years later, the closure of the Plano, Texas location we had sought out when we moved to Texas. And don't get me started about Don Pablo's, another Mexican restaurant chain we made memories at, that's now completely gone.

It seems silly, yet, the closure of On The Border hits hard for me because it stirs up good memories and brings to the forefront that that's all I have with Kathy. Memories. She's gone. And now there's one more place we went and it's gone too. It leaves me a little sad.

That said, I'm moving forward with my life. And there's certainly no shortage of great Mexican restaurants between Sedalia and Warrensburg, no trip to Lee's Summit is necessary.

For now, there's still one On The Border in the area, the one at Oak Park Mall in Overland Park. Will I go? Probably not.

There are new memories to make with friends, and new restaurants to fall in love with. Hopefully, the memories I make will be as good as the ones I made with Kathy. I'll be pretty happy if that's how it works out.