Popular Texas Late-Night Eateries Could Close by 2025

Texas is a state that's up early and stays out late. Our farmers and ranchers are up early because they have to be. Just ask anybody from Abilene to Amarillo "What's early to you" and you'll find out there is a whole other "four o'clock" that you've been sleeping through. But whether it's work in West Texas or playing all night in the big cities of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, or Winnie, you're going to need something to eat.

Let's face it, some of those drives through the Big Country or between Midland and Odessa could drive you mad if you didn't have a welcoming sign up ahead promising some great food, hot coffee, and polite conversation. But now it looks as if one of those beacons of the all-night road warrior could be dimming or going out completely.

Needless to say when you start the day early and end the day late you're going to need fuel for your adventures and that's why so many all-night restaurants have been successful in communities large and small all over Texas. Thank goodness we've got more than a few to choose from.

I think we've all breathed a deep sigh of relief when driving on I-10 at 3:30 am and we see a Waffle House sign, right? Or maybe for you, it's the hard-to-miss orange stripes of an all-night Whataburger Restaurant that fuels your fire. We love our all-night eateries but unfortunately, it looks as if one of the nation's most well-known places for an all-night bite is about to bite the dust.

The brain trust that is behind the operation of Denny's Restaurants has announced that some 150 locations of the popular eatery will likely be closing by the end of 2025. The company noted that it plans to shutter only its "lowest performing" restaurants in an effort to turn around lagging sales.

In an announcement that was made on Tuesday, the management team suggested that about half of the closures would happen before the end of 2024 with the remainder happening in 2025. The company cited inflation as a leading cause for the change in the business model. Denny's is not the only "family dining" restaurant to see sales plummet since the pandemic of 2020.

Denny's currently operates 201 stores in Texas. There are locations in Abilene, Eagle Pass, Lewisville, and Round Rock just to name a few.  It is unclear which, if any, of these locations will be affected by the company's most recent announcement.