An Overland Park institution where you can build your own chili plate is closing

For more than 50 years, a strip center spot in Overland Park has been dishing up plates of thick, meaty chili and not much else.

Customers coming in today will see it as it appeared in the early days — bright red bar stools at the white Formica-topped counter, red-and-white checkered linoleum floor, and wood-paneled walls, like “stepping into the ’60s,” said Bruce Fritz, owner of Fritz’s Chili.

But not for much longer.

Fritz, who started there as a 13-year-old in the mid-1960s, said he will shutter the restaurant on Aug. 24. He’s ready to retire.

Fritz’s Chili first opened as part of the Dixon’s Chili Parlor chain in 1966. Leonard and Virginia Totta were the owners and three years later, they sold it to their best friends, Bruce Fritz’s parents, the families said.

When his parents retired in 1982, Fritz took over the restaurant. He couldn’t work out a deal to keep it a Dixon’s franchise so he changed the name to Fritz’s Chili and carried on for more than three decades.

“I guess people like chili and we use the best ingredients. We don’t have fillers, no soy beans. Meat and beans, real basic,” he said. “The food is always consistent and also I’m here every day. I think if you have the owner working there, somebody is probably caring about it more than if they are not.”

Fritz uses his family’s special spice blend, 100 percent ground beef, no tomatoes, and U.S.-grown pink beans, prepared daily on-site.

While “basic,” customers can customize their order many, many ways.

They can have chili, meat and beans (a layer of beans covered by a layer of meat) or all meat.

They can order it “soupy” (for extra bean broth), “dry” (broth is drained) or “greasy” (extra meat grease).

Toppings include ketchup, chopped onions, jalapeno puree, sliced dill pickles, Fritos, sour cream and grated Cheddar cheese.

A small meat and beans plate is $6.75, a large is $7.75. An all-meat plate is $8.

Once they have their order, they can then sprinkle on Fritz’s house blend of chili powder and its spicy red pepper vinegar. Bottles of the vinegar are within reach of every plate but Fritz’s suggests adding a little at a time.

He also offered hot dogs, taco dogs and hamburgers, but as the closing nears, he is just concentrating on chili to try to keep up.

Since news got out on the closing, the restaurant has been filling up at meal times. Fritz’s wife had emergency eye surgery this week, leaving him and a stepson Nick Fink to run the place, from taking orders to payments. Most customers on a recent day politely waited as long as it took.

Mike Boresow of Olathe has been a fan or more than 15 years.

“Old-fashioned home recipes and sole proprietorship. I like to support the small owners,” Boresow said at lunch this week. “And it’s good food. I always get the chili, obviously. My only decision is if I get medium or large.”

Fritz’s had so many customers Wednesday it ran out of chili and closed early.

“I’m seeing people who haven’t been in for awhile and new people who have never been in. They’re 50 years too late,” he said.

Fritz said his lease for the spot, at 6737 W. 75th St., is up soon. He had another restaurateur who wanted to take over the space and continue running it as a Fritz’s Chili. But they couldn’t renegotiate the lease.

“I think they just wanted us out of here and that is fine with us. We wanted to retire,” he said.

John Nolan of Crossroads Retail Group said he had talked to the restaurateur who wanted to take over the spot but he is in negotiations with another restaurant who wants the Fritz’s Chili space, along with another empty spot to the west, for a new 4,700-square-foot restaurant and is willing to sign a long-term lease.

“I love Fritz’s and so does the landlord,” Nolan said. “This was just a business decision.”

Meanwhile, in Independence, the last Dixon’s Chili is feeling the effects.

“We’re getting a couple of calls or more a week, with people thinking we are closing,” said Stephen Steffes, general manager and son of the owner. “We haven’t been affiliated with Fritz’s for more than 30 years. We are coming up on a hundred years and hope to be here another hundred.”

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 2:26 PM.