Mexican Cafe fills Chi-Chi's building

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Feb 24, 2005 | by Cahalan, Steve

ONALASKA, Wis. - A Carlos O'Kelly's Mexican Cafe is expected to open in two to three months in the former Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant building at 9396 Hwy. 16 in Onalaska, a spokesman said Wednesday. Chi-Chi's closed last September.

The property was purchased this week by Sasnak Management Corp. of Wichita, Kan., said Hugh Nicks, the company's vice president of marketing. He declined to reveal the purchase price.

Sasnak (which is Kansas spelled backward) owns and operates 48 Carlos O'Kelly's restaurants in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin.

As a franchisee, Sasnak also owns 21 Applebee's restaurants in Iowa and Illinois.

"This will be our 49th Carlos O'Kelly's," Nicks said of the Onalaska location. "We want to expand in that part of the country. We already have locations in Rochester (Minn.) and Madison (Wis.).

"We're a Mexican restaurant," he said. "We serve traditional Mexican fare.

"Our design people were there yesterday" looking over the Onalaska building and its equipment, Nicks said. There will be "not a lot, but obviously some" remodeling before Carlos O'Kelly's opens, he said.

The Onalaska restaurant probably will have about 75 employees, Nicks said.

Chi-Chi's opened in 1985 in the East Towne Plaza shopping center and had about 35 employees when it closed.

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For more information on Carlos O'Kelly's Mexican Cafe, check the Web site www.carlosokellys.com