report<\/a> from RestaurantData shows 1,039 restaurant closures across Texas during the first half of 2026, the highest number of closures in the nation.<\/p>\nAt Renny\u2019s Bar and Grill in Dallas, owner Mark Maguire is a familiar presence, laughing with customers, checking in on tables and making sure guests feel at home.<\/p>\n
Maguire has been in the restaurant business for more than 40 years. For him, Renny\u2019s is more than a business \u2014 it is a family legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenny is my dad. That’s where the name of the restaurant came from,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
His father did more than inspire the restaurant\u2019s name. Maguire said he helped shape the personality of the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s like the mayor of the place. He walks in and says hello to everybody wants to stop and talk to everybody,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
But behind the laughter and familiar faces, Maguire said running a restaurant has become increasingly uncertain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we’ve seen in the last really, six to 10 months has definitely put a knot in my stomach,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
Maguire is far from alone.<\/p>\n
The Texas Restaurant Association said rising operating costs are among the biggest challenges facing restaurants. Food, wages and other expenses have increased significantly since the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cFood costs are up 35% since the pandemic. Wages are up about 30%,\u201d said Kelsey Erickson Streufert with the Texas Restaurant Association.<\/p>\n
Those higher costs are also being felt by customers as restaurants work to keep menu prices from rising even further.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are struggling to try to find ways to keep our our prices on our menus stable,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
For Maguire, higher operating costs were more than numbers on a spreadsheet. Last summer, they nearly forced him to consider closing Renny\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were close to having to make a decision on whether we thought we could keep our doors open or not,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
The restaurant ultimately stayed open, helped in part by its base of loyal customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily, you know, we just kind of had a really good foundation of of regular supportive customers,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
But the restaurant industry\u2019s story is not entirely about closures.<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas is also far and away leading the nation when it comes to restaurant openings,\u201d Erickson Streufert said.<\/p>\n
In July alone, 391 new restaurants opened across Texas, according to RestaurantData. Numbers like those give Maguire reason to remain optimistic about the industry\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives me confidence that, you know, if people are still want open restaurants, they’re seeing opportunities there and they’re seeing demand there,\u201d Maguire said.<\/p>\n
For now, Renny\u2019s Bar and Grill remains open, and Maguire hopes to keep it that way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014\u00a0Restaurant doors open every day across Texas, but for some owners, keeping those doors open has become…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[132,910,1570,102,138,136128,223,160,162,161,82,1569,835],"class_list":["post-410090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-austin","tag-business","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-ezekiel-ramirez","tag-news","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}