It came to some alarm when Fuzzy’s Taco Shop closed all of its Greater Houston locations Aug. 30. The Dallas-based Tex-Mex restaurant chain has been in the region for more than a decade. Fuzzy’s owners aren’t talking, but some of the parent company’s public-facing documents do shed some light on the chain’s current struggles.
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History of Fuzzy’s Taco Shop
In 2001, restaurateur Paul Willis opened the first Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in Fort Worth near Texas Christian University. In 2003, father-and-son duo Alan and Chuck Bush purchased Fuzzy’s and began expanding the concept.
Fuzzy’s arrived in Houston sometime before 2016, according to reports. That year, Houston Chronicle food editor Greg Morago noted the chain had opened its fifth location at 10275 B South Post Oak Road in the Meyerland-Westbury area.
In 2022, Dine Brands, the owner of the IHOP and Applebee’s chains of restaurants, announced it had purchased Fuzzy’s for $80 million in cash. At the time, Fuzzy’s had 138 restaurants in 13 states, and 98 percent of them were franchised.
Fuzzy’s began to shrink a year later under Dine Brands’ stewardship. Dine Brands CEO John Peyton said in a 2024 earnings call that the company made some “strategic closures,” bringing the total restaurant count down to 128. By the end of the year, the chain had dropped to 117 locations. At the end of 2025, the store count was 106. As of today, that count is now 97.
To date, Dine Brands hasn’t said much about why these restaurants have closed. Its 2025 report to the SEC says Fuzzy experienced a 7 percent decline in same restaurant-sales for the fiscal year. Franchise revenue fell $2.3 million due to lower royalties, fewer restaurants and forfeited development fees, according to the same report. The company said it had signed deals to open 79 more Fuzzy’s locations over the next seven years, but no new franchised locations have opened, according to its 2026 second-quarter report.
Dine Brands did not respond to Chron’s request for comment.
From fast-casual to trad dining
Fuzzy’s had opened roughly 10 restaurants in the decade or so it was in the Houston area. A number of locations were inside Loop 610 in the bustling neighborhoods of River Oaks and Midtown. All of them closed for one reason or another; the Fuzzy’s in Midtown was demolished after a 2016 fire.
As of two weeks ago, Fuzzy’s had just three Houston area locations: Katy, Kingwood and Sugar Land. The Houston franchise operator NGE had attempted a rebranding of the remaining locations to Fuzzy’s Tacos & Margs, moving from a less fast-casual experience to a more traditional sit-down restaurant. But on Aug. 30, all three remaining area locations of Fuzzy’s closed. The closest Fuzzy’s Taco Shop to Houston is in Beaumont; otherwise, the chain remains solidly operational in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. There’s also a single location in Marietta, Ga.
