Pig Stand: gone for good?

If you haven't heard yet, the Pig Stand, the venerable Washington Avenue greasy spoon, has closed after 83 years of serving up burgers, onion rings, greasy breakfasts and sloppy Pig Sandwiches (pulled pork and barbecue sauce, if you didn't know). According to the San Antonio Express-News, the problem is rooted in back taxes: The Pig Stand chain has been in financial trouble since filing for bankruptcy reorganization last year, and now the state has revoked its operating license because the company owes more than $315,000 in sales taxes. The five Pigs — three in San Antonio, one in Beaumont and the one here — closed Wednesday, apparently an attempt to buy some time for the chain.

"Due to the fact that all its restaurants have been closed, and coupled with previous losses, Texas Pig Stands Inc. currently has no available funds to pay any remaining creditors including funds due to employees," Vincent Liuzza, the bankruptcy trustee for the Pig Stands, said in a statement.

Liuzza said earlier this month that he estimates the Pig Stands' debt to total about $3 million and that the owner, Richard Hailey, was trying to sell the chain to investors. Last week's closure was apparently unexpected, and it left many employees stuck with bounced paychecks and no way to get their wages. In San Antonio, Pig Stand employees said the company is trying to pay them with food instead of money — and you can imagine how that went over.

The Pig Stand has a long and storied history: The chain was founded in 1921, and Pig Stands were among the first drive-up restaurants in the U.S. They were among the first restaurants to use neon, fluorescent lights and air conditioning, and the chain claims it invented onion rings, Texas toast and the chicken-fried steak sandwich. At its peak in the 1930s, the Pig Stand chain included more than 100 restaurants across the western U.S.

It's not clear when, or if, the Pig Stands will reopen.

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Photo: flickr user Randy