GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — When Loop 9 BBQ opens Monday, it will be situated in the heart of new development off President George Bush Turnpike in Grand Prairie: A water park to its west, shopping centers on all sides, an Ikea to its south.
Loop 9 will be new, too, an anchor restaurant in the city's sprawling Epic Central project.
Needless to say, the opening will be a bit more shiny than when founder Larry Lavine opened a burger restaurant in an old converted post office in 1975.
Lavine, who opened the first Chili's on Greenville Avenue in Dallas nearly five decades ago, is back in the restaurant game.
Loop 9 will be among the first restaurants opening at Grand Prairie's Epic Central, a 172-acre entertainment district that includes the Epic Waters indoor waterpark and the Chicken 'N Pickle pickleball restaurant and bar.
Lavine said other restaurants in the project plan to open later this year, so Loop 9 will mostly be on its own for a few months. But foot traffic or not, Lavine said Loop 9 has a simple goal starting out: Get people to come back.
"The key is for them to say they're going to come back," Lavine said. "If you can't get them to come back, then you better be [located] outside the front of Disney World."
Lavine said Loop 9 wants to be in the "premium category" of barbecue, alongside the likes of North Texas favorites Pecan Lodge, Cattleack, Goldee's and Terry Black's. Loop 9 will offer all the staples of Texas barbecue: Brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork, sausage, smoked turkey and beef ribs on Saturdays.
Lavine knows the bulk of their reputation will hinge on one item: The brisket.
"When people go into a barbecue place, the first thing they'll try is the brisket. And if they don't like that, they'll leave," Lavine said.
Lavine has experience in the barbecue business, and not just with baby back ribs. He was part of the group that founded Ten Fifty BBQ in Richardson in 2014. When Lavine decided to dip his toe into the business, he "studied" barbecue for two years "and sacrificed many cows," he joked.
Both Ten Fifty and Loop 9 differ from what Chili's became. But Chili's, along with several other restaurants of its era, helped set the stage for the casual dining scene.
As Lavine explained to WFAA last summer, the 1970s featured upscale steakhouses and cafes but little in between. Chili's filled that space. Brinker International bought the company in the early 1980s and took the concept worldwide. Lavine left Chili's around the same time, but remained a fan.
At 76, he's energized and ready to start something new.
"I get in trouble when I don't have something to do," Lavine joked. "It's fun building a concept. I miss having a team of smart people around me."
