Don Pablo's Closes In White Marsh, New Restaurant Announced

WHITE MARSH, MD — The Avenue at White Marsh announced recently that one of its restaurants has closed. In its place, a new eatery — Wayward Smokehouse and The Curious Oyster — will open in 2019.

The White Marsh location was one of the last Don Pablo's standing.

Don Pablo's shuttered at the end of November. A sign on the door has been posted letting would-be patrons know that the restaurant closed. Over the weekend, Patch watched as families came up to the door for lunch, unaware of the news.

Now the only Don Pablo's around is in Deptford, New Jersey, according to Food Management Partners, which handles the brand.

Don Pablo's launched in 1985 in Lubbock, Texas, and grew to more than 120 restaurants at its peak.

It filed for bankruptcy in 2016 and closed locations across the country, citing competition from other fast-casual businesses like Chipotle, Qdoba and Moe's.

In the past several months, the remaining Don Pablo's restaurants closed one by one. A Cincinnati news station reported Don Pablo's closed in Ohio there in July, leaving the last of the Tex-Mex chain's empire in a few states, including Delaware, Maryland, Texas and New Jersey.

The restaurant in the Christiana Mall closed — taking Delaware off the list — in late September.

There is a Don Pablo's Restaurant in Laredo, Texas, but the owner who answered the phone there says he is the sole proprietor, and the restaurant is not part of a franchise.

With the shuttering of Don Pablo's in White Marsh, there is no longer a Don Pablo's in Maryland.

That means people craving the Tex-Mex chain will have to travel 90 minutes from White Marsh to the New Jersey location.

Photos by Elizabeth Janney.