What Happened to Jose's?

Just five years ago, Jose's Mexican Restaurant and Cantina on Dickson Street ranked No. 4 in Fayetteville restaurant sales with $2.7 million in 2003 by some accounts. Soon after Joe Fennel sold the business to Neal Crawford in November 2004, it disappeared from the Top Ten list of Fayetteville restaurants in terms of sales. That could have been because Fennel did not report separate sales figures for Bordino's.

Lately, Jose's is not ever to be found anywhere among the most popular eating establishments. Nor do any of the Mexican restaurants operated by Hispanic owners show up on the most recent Top Ten list of eateries paying the HMR tax. Nor does Bordino's, although it has in the recent past. The Chick-Fil-A on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which just opened in January and is closed on Sunday, has already left Jose's in the dust and is ranked No. 6 among all restaurants in the February Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion tax receipts.

These sales figures are based on voluntary self-reports made by each restaurant that collects the 2% Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant tax that goes to fund the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission and our city parks. Neal Crawford, owner of Jose's, is on the Board of the A&P Commission, so it must be particularly troubling for him that Jose's is no longer among the sales leaders.