The opening of Chido’s Tex-Mex Grill in Downtown Silver Spring has been delayed, with a new opening date yet to be determined.
The Laurel-based restaurant did not provide a reason for the delay in its announcement posted to Instagram on Thursday: “We don’t have an opening date yet, but we’re working on it. We’ll keep you all posted.”
We reported in February that Chido’s would take over the former location of The Eleanor at 931 Ellsworth Drive, joining the also-incoming Roaming Rooster and Gold’s Gym in the Downtown Silver Spring development. The Eleanor closed in June of 2023, and its bowling lanes and fixtures were auctioned off last fall.
Previous restaurants at this location include Lincoln’s Bar-B-Que, which closed in 2018; A.G. Kitchen, which closed in 2016; and Romano’s Macaroni Grill, which closed in 2013.
According to MoCo360, Chido’s had planned to open in July; the county’s Board of License Commissioners held a hearing regarding the restaurant’s liquor license application last May. The license was approved alongside Dimmples Kettles, which recently opened in the former home of Lotus Café at 8073 Georgia Ave.
Chido’s opened in 2016 at a former Don Pablo’s restaurant in Laurel and expanded to a second location in Owings Mills in 2018. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision was made not to renew the lease for the Owings Mills location, leading to its closure in 2020.
Don Pablo’s, which at one point had 120 locations across the United States and was the country’s second-largest full-service Mexican restaurant chain during the late 1990s, filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and went defunct in 2019.
Chido’s marked its 8th anniversary in Laurel last June.
“Originally, Chido’s Tex-Mex Grill opened in Owings Mills, however, the timing was just slightly pre-pandemic; the lease was up, numbers were down and rumors of some mysterious virus were spreading, Chido’s Tex-Mex Gill decided not to renew their lease,” General Manager Horacio Romero said to Streetcar Suburbs News last year. “After scouting various locations and the virus situation settling down, [owner] Fidel Rincon chose the present site [in Laurel].”
The Source will update as more information becomes available.