Here’s what Abuelo’s has to say about the closure of its Beavercreek restaurant

The corporate owner of the Dayton area's only Abuelo's Mexican restaurant that shut down earlier this week in Beavercreek has released a handful of details about the closing and their future plans -- and there's little for its customers to cheer about.

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“We don’t currently have plans to open another location in the Dayton area,” Melanie Carroll, marketing director for Abuelo’s corporate parent, Food Concepts International, told this news outlet in response to emailed questions.

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The Abuelo’s has been a Beavercreek dining option since it opened in 2005 at 2420 N. Fairfield Road, just south of the Mall at Fairfield Commons. The store shut down permanently earlier this week, and company officials acknowledged the shutdown on the Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant Facebook page on Tuesday, Jan. 2, in response to a customer’s posted comment.

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“If you have gift cards with outstanding balances, we welcome you to use them in our other Abuelo’s restaurants in Ohio or at any of our locations nationwide,” a sign on the restaurant’s door tells customers. Carroll mentioned the Abuelo’s locations in Mason and Columbus, as well as a restaurant in Crestview Hills in northern Kentucky near Cincinnati.

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All employees impacted by the Beavercreek closure were personally notified, and managers were on-site to provide assistance in helping them find other employment opportunities in the community, Carroll said. She thanked the chain’s Dayton-area guests “for their loyal patronage over the years.”

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The closing of Abuelo’s represents the second shutdown of a high-profile Mexican-themed restaurant in the North Fairfield Road strip in about 16 months. The Don Pablo’s Tex-Mex restaurant at 2745 Fairfield Commons Blvd. in front of the Fairfield Commons Mall closed its doors for good in September 2016.

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Increased competition from a surge in restaurant openings in and around the Mall at Fairfield Commons — and perhaps from a similar-concept restaurant Chuy’s, which opened its large new Tex-Mex restaurant near the mall’s entrance in December 2015 — may have played a role in the closure.

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Other high-profile openings in the past year have included Melt Bar & Grilled, FUSIAN, and MacKenzie River Pizza Grill Pub, all at or in front of the Fairfield Commons mall. In addition, Flyboys Deli, which operates a restaurant in Oakwood, is gearing up to open a second location near the mall’s front entrance later this month.

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