Chuy’s Charge

Tex-Mex restaurant chain Chuy’s has charged out of the gate in Northwest Arkansas.

The publicly held company based in Austin, Texas, opened its Rogers location on Jan. 14 — a Tuesday, because Chuy’s always opens its restaurants on Tuesdays, said manager Jason Crane — and has been overrun with customers, with waits as long as two hours on some nights.

Want to know the reason? Well, besides offering food that is generally rated a notch above typical chain Mexican fare, Crane said the restaurant is only using about 50 percent of its available tables.

“Our occupancy is 300 inside the building, but we haven’t opened all the tables yet,” he said. “We want to make sure our execution is right. The kitchen can only handle so much when they’re all brand new. When you get people waiting 90 minutes for a table, the last thing you want to make them do is wait another 30 minutes at the table for their food.”

Makes sense to us. Crane said the restaurant did about $120,000 in business its first six days, and has been right in that range each week since.