Rubio's Coastal Grill, formerly known as Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill and Rubio's Baja Grill, is an American fast casual "Fresh Mex" or "New Mex" restaurant chain specializing in Mexican food, with an emphasis on

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

taco A taco (, , ) is a traditional Mexican cuisine, Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn tortilla, corn- or Flour tortilla, wheat-based tortilla topped with a Stuffing, filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and fing ...

s. As of January 2025, Rubio's operates, licenses, or franchises 82 restaurants, with 17 restaurants in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, 60 in Southern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and 5 in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

. It previously had locations in northern California,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. The chain announced store closings and a bankruptcy filing the same year with plans to sell itself to lenders. It is headquartered in

Carlsbad, California Carlsbad is a beach city in the North County area of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is north of downtown San Diego and south of downtown Los Angeles. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of ...

. At one time, the company had as many as 196 restaurants through the United States by the end of 2016.

History

According to founder Ralph Rubio, he and some friends from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

were on spring break in San Felipe, Baja California, when he first encountered fish tacos at a local stand, and was inspired to open a restaurant serving them in his hometown,

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Since then, the popularity of fish tacos has spread throughout California, although they remain uncommon elsewhere. Rubio's standard fish tacos are made from Alaskan

pollock Pollock or pollack (pronounced ) is the common name used for either of the two species of North Atlantic ocean, marine fish in the genus ''Pollachius''. ''Pollachius pollachius'' is referred to as "pollock" in North America, Ireland and the Unit ...

, which is battered, fried, and served in a corn tortilla, although optionally offered with a flour tortilla. Grilled mahi-mahi is also available at all locations. The first Rubio's restaurant was opened in 1983 at a former Orange Julius site on Mission Bay Drive in the Pacific Beach area of San Diego. The first restaurant offered French fries, calamari, and fish tacos, among other cuisine. Rubio's Restaurants, Inc. became a public company when it began to issue stock on Nasdaq under the symbol RUBO in May 1999. At the time of the IPO, the company had a total of 64 restaurants, six in Arizona, four in Las Vegas, one in Denver, and the remainder in California. On August 24, 2010, Rubio's Restaurants, Inc. announced the closing of its merger with a subsidiary of Mill Road Capital, L.P. to take the company private. Rubio's former stockholders were to receive $8.70 per share in cash in the transaction. Rubio's first restaurant in Colorado open in 1999. Rubio's expanded into Florida through the acquisition and conversion of eight Lime Fresh Mexican Grills from Ruby Tuesday in 2016. At the time of the conversions, the company had 196 restaurant.

Mass closings

Rubio's locations in Utah were closed in 2019. In June 2020, Rubio's Coastal Grill told ''

Nation's Restaurant News ''Nation's Restaurant News'' (''NRN'') is an American trade publication, founded in 1967. NRN covers the foodservice industry, including restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Me ...

'' about the closure of all their Florida and Colorado store locations, a total of twelve, due to the negative business impact of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. And that they will then focus on their remaining stores in the California, Arizona, and Nevada markets. Prior to the 2020 closures, the company had 170 restaurants coast-to-coast. In October 2020, the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. On May 31, 2024, the chain closed 48 stores in California (including 13 in its hometown area of San Diego) out of an original 134 in California, Arizona and Nevada. On June 5, 2024, Rubio's for the second time in four years filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

, with plans to sell itself to its lenders. Out of the closures in May 2024, 37 of the 48 locations were in Southern California, while the other 11 locations were north of

Bakersfield Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of the ...

. As a result of the closure, Rubio's completely exited the Fresno,

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, Stockton,

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

and

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county located in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises ...

regions. Bakersfield remains the only location outside of

Greater Los Angeles Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the eas ...

and

regions open. A few locations prior to the bankruptcy also closed in early 2024, including

Walnut A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...

and

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

. Rubio's did not close any of its Nevada or Arizona locations as part of the bankruptcy. In August 2024, Rubio's was bought by its lender for approximately USD $40 million. In addition, Rubio’s shut down locations in Chino Hills, the

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

campus, and Glendale after the buyout. A location in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, also was shut down after the buyout.

Controversies

Langostino mislabeling

In 2005, a class action lawsuit was brought against the company complaining that the "Lobster Burrito" offered at the restaurant contained

squat lobster Squat lobsters are dorsoventrally flattened crustaceans with long tails held curled beneath the cephalothorax. They are found in the two superfamilies Galatheoidea and Chirostyloidea, which form part of the decapod infraorder Anomura, alongs ...

(also known as Langostino) rather than clawed

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

from the family Nephropidae. Rubio's subsequently changed the name of their product to the "Langostino Lobster Burrito" to avoid future confusion. The burrito is occasionally offered as a "limited time offer".

Overtime

Employees filed a class action lawsuit in 2007 against Rubio's claiming that the company failed to pay overtime by alleged misclassification. The company paid $7.5 million to settle the lawsuit without admitting wrongdoing.

References

External links

*
Slashfood.com: Details of Rubio's lawsuit
{{Fast-food chains of the United States 1983 establishments in California Companies based in Carlsbad, California Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2024 Fast casual restaurants Fast-food chains of the United States Fast-food Mexican restaurants Regional restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 1983 Restaurants in California