EatZi's Market & Bakery - a Dallas-Based Upscale Market with Prepared Foods in Uptown - Closed

[DonRocks]

On 11/16/2006 at 12:49 PM, crackers said:

Has anybody else heard that Eatzi's in Rockville has just closed with only 24 hour notice to its employees?

Happy Thanksgiving.

And others too.

EatZi's closed all their locations outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth area (Rockville, Houston, Chicago, and Atlanta), all on very short notice.

However, they're still going strong in Dallas-Fort Worth, maintaining their four locations there, and planning to open a fifth.

From the Wikipedia article: "Following their time in the White House, President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura rely on Eatzi's and friends since neither like to cook." 

Note that the founder, Philip J. Romano, also founded Fuddrucker's (which, according to their website, has "the world's greatest hamburgers") and Romano's Macaroni Grill (which, according to their website, "sources from Italian farms").

To our friends in Houston: If this type of comment about Fuddrucker's and Macaroni Grill offends your sensibilities, I urge you to use Yelp - you'll be happier there; if you don't mind good-natured ribbing and honest criticism, you'll enjoy it here, and we'll be both grateful and better-off for having you with us - give us a chance, and you'll see that we walk the walk).

Cheers,
Rocks

[DonRocks]

May 13, 2024 - "EatZi's CEO Has an Appetite to Saturate the Texas Market" by Alexa Reed on bizjournals.com

[will_5198]

Not to give Eatzi's more publicity, but I just want to point out that Phil Romano was sued in 2016 (circumstantially, the aforementioned out-of-state locations closed a month after the suit was announced) for groping one of his own female employees and the incident was caught via security camera. He settled out of court two years later. 

I'm sure Eatzi's was much more novel (upscale, kind-of-Italian grab-and-go) back in the late '90s, but in the year 2024 I truly wonder why they continue to exist. Dallas has a dreadful deli culture so maybe Eatzi's poor semblance of one is acceptable enough to their customer base.