goodbye to another great one

last night... couldn't decide where to go for dinner... i said anything but mexican, because i've not been impressed with any of the mexican i've had lately... the suggestion was thai food in the loop, that didn't really sound good to me, but oh well. so we're headed out 40, passing skinker, and i say "Hey, what about Chuy's?" "what's that?" i hear. only the best mexican food in st. louis! so i take the next exit and loop back like i know where i'm going, i've never driven there, only been a passenger, so i didn't have any idea where it was. a quick cruise down restaurant alley and there it is! i, of course, got a fantastic parking spot right in front... i'm good like that... it's late, around 8:30, it's totally packed, i figured it was just the happy hour crowd still there. the wait is going to be about 40 minutes, so i grab drinks from the bar. "you're out of corona?" si, we're out of almost everything. so i get a dos XX and a strawberry margarita, which he looks nervous about too... he looks back and says "that'll probably be the last one" i say fine. then standing around waiting, people are hugging the waiters as they leave, telling them goodbye, we'll miss you kinda stuff... i figured they were moving away or something... then a completely different group did the same thing. and i started looking around, and found a sign on the front door. it said that they are closing their doors, the last night of operation would be july 3rd.. it Was the 3rd! it said they were closing mostly due to the hwy 40 shut down, slow down of business and the rising prices of food. bummer, because it was a really good, fun place to eat or have a happy hour. when the bartender said "that's probably the last one", i was picturing the ice cream machine at pizza street, yes, it's empty, but it will be running again in 20 minutes... i didn't realize it at the time, but i bought the last frozen strawberry margarita from Chuy's in Dogtown. =(