Why did Joe's Crab Shack close?

[springlakediver]

I used to enjoy stopping in there after diving Aquarena. Now I hear it's shut down. What gives?

[Beto]

Joe's is owned by Landry's corp. I assume they were not making enough money as a Joe's - so they re-tooled and re-opened as another Landry's incarnation: Salt Grass. Interestingly enough, Landry's sold all but 23 of their Joe's Crab Shacks in October 2006 to another company.

[springlakediver]

Thanks, Beto

[sanmarcoschad]

Actually...

the entire Landry's corp is owned by Tilman Fertitta (practically owns all of Galveston, recently purchased the Tower of the Americas in SA, as well as the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas).

The list of Fertitta's enterprises is staggering. The man is worth over $200 million, and has the attitude to go with it. (I've met him on several occasions). Basically, his investors became a little nervous with his risky purchase of the Golden Nugget and pulled out backing from Landry's corp. Joe's Crab Shack has consistently been the lowest grossing restaurant in the corp, and so he sold the chain to garner funds for the Golden Nugget. As the restaurant was located on University property, the lease was specifically for a Landry's corp business, so Fertitta had to stick one of his other restaurants in the spot.

Fertitta is interested in buying any land he can get his hands on, and turning it into a neon maze of cookie cutter restaurants and housing developments. He has a history of buying property in ecologically sensitive areas (Cases in point: the Kemah Boardwalk wetlands, Galveston Seawall, and more recently wetlands in San Luis Pass area). His "Aquarium" restaurant chain supports the use of fish collected by immoral means for display- cyanide in coral reefs, etc.

If you enjoy dining on crappy food while overlooking neon where wetlands should be, (including the headwaters of our river), then by all means support his businesses.