Mama Inez Express closing after almost 20 years of business – East Idaho News

CHUBBUCK — The second location of a Chubbuck restaurant that has been in business for nearly 40 years is closing its doors.

Mama Inez Express, which has operated at 140 West Chubbuck Road for 18 years, is officially closing on September 2. Operations will be consolidated to the main Mama Inez location at 390 Yellowstone Avenue.

“It came to a point where it was time to close her down,” said Jason Moore, general manager of Mama Inez.

Moore said they’ve all known they would close the express location eventually because the building has been on sale for, “a few months now.” While the building hasn’t sold yet, he said it has been attracting interest.

“We’ve had lots of people looking at it,” Moore said. “We’ve had a couple of doctors offices and a couple other people looking. Another restaurant looked into it, but no takers yet.”

Even before the building was put on the market, business had been slowing down for a couple of years. Also, it was a struggle to keep the restaurant fully staffed. There have even been times when the restaurant had to close on days it would normally be open, or close early because there wasn’t enough staff.

Moore said once COVID-19 spread to the area, people started to exclusively use the Express drive through when they used to dine in. However, things have changed.

“It’s kind of slowed down and we’ve never quite put our finger on exactly why, but it’s just a different world now,” Moore said.

Because of the staffing shortages they’ve had at both locations, Moore said they won’t have to cut any staff as they move employees from the Express over to the Yellowstone location. He said much of the staff worked at both locations, anyway, with very few employees working exclusively at the Express.

Moore said he sees it as a win-win situation for Mama Inez long term.

“In the long run it’ll help out,” he said. “We’re going to have a full staff of good, knowledgeable people that’ve been there for a while.”

Moore said while they’re not hiring new positions right now, that could change in the future. People who are interested in joining the Mama Inez family can either apply online or get an application in person.

“A lot of people hang out together after work and do things and become really close friends … if anybody wants to apply, it’s more than likely, eventually, we could probably get you in there,” Moore said.

Moore hopes loyal customers of Mama Inez Express will come check out the Yellowstone location.

“They can come into our store and get (food) to-go there, or come in and dine-in with us and hopefully we can win you back over there,” Moore said.