Best deal

of the year

Southern Standard Publisher Patricia Zechman likes to remind me that we at the Standard do an excellent job of promoting businesses across the county, but sometimes we forget to promote our own. 

I've spent over a year now writing Business Pulse, and in that time I've told you about hundreds of businesses. Pat is right. One business I haven't told you as much about, and one which affects me the most personally, is one of the oldest, most established businesses in Warren County. That's right, I'm talking about the good ol' Southern Standard. 

I've worked here for 26 years and in that time I've learned it is a good idea to take action when your boss suggests something, so please allow me to engage in a bit of shameless self-promotion for a moment this week.

The Standard has been Warren County's leading news source since 1879 and it still is to this day. As other media sources seem to drift away from news coverage, the importance of the Southern Standard's role in informing the citizens of Warren County only increases. It is a heavy responsibility we take seriously. 

Without the Standard's coverage, many issues raised at city and county government meetings would go unnoticed by the majority of the population. Without the Standard, many grandparents' scrapbooks of their loved ones' academic and athletic accomplishments would be much thinner. Without the Standard, whether many citizens know about upcoming events, concerts or fundraisers would depend largely on if they follow the right people on Facebook. Without the Standard, many of the happenings in crime and court cases would go unknown to the majority of the populace. 

And, if you'll allow me to toot my own horn for a moment, without the Standard, where would local business owners have the forum to have their businesses featured to a large audience and where would curious townsfolk take their questions for reliable information about happenings in the local business world? 

These are all things we feel a great responsibility to provide and, though dealing with several personnel changes in the past year and a half, we are striving to be even better at providing the coverage our fellow citizens both want and deserve. Our entire staff now consists of Warren County residents, most of whom have spent their entire lives here, so this community is important to us.

As much as we see ourselves as a public service and oftentimes a community bulletin board, the hard financial facts of the matter are we are a corporately owned business and we need to sell advertising and newspapers to survive. This is where you can help both us and yourself out this week. From Nov. 20 - 24, we are holding our Black Friday special. 

From this Monday through Friday, a carrier home-delivery year subscription to the Southern Standard is only $67. In a climate of inflation, it's worth noting that this year's Standard Black Friday special is $11 cheaper than last year's special Black Friday price of $78. This year's $67 deal is a $33 savings over the regular price for a year's subscription of $100 and means you'll get a full year's worth of Warren County news, sports, business, event coverage, crossword puzzles, word searches, etc. for less than 42 cents per issue. The subscription also includes full access to southernstandard.com and all stories, videos and newspaper PDFs posted there.

The limited-time subscription deal gets you every single issue and special section of the paper (some subscriber-exclusive) delivered directly to your home for $102 less over the course of the year than if you bought each issue at the store or newspaper box. 

But wait, there's more! While supplies last, everyone signing up for a new subscription or renewing or extending an existing subscription will get, in addition to the discounted deal, a free pen and keychain flashlight kit. The subscription deal is a great option for the hard-to-buy-for relative, friend or neighbor on your Christmas list. It's up to you whether you also give them the pen and flashlight or choose to keep that for yourself. We won't tell.

Chabelitas closed?

Few things garner me more comments and questions as the writer of Business Pulse than news involving restaurants. Whether it's a new restaurant coming to town or the status of current restaurants, it is clear Southern Standard readers have a great interest in where they can eat.

So it's no surprise I've been hearing from people recently who have had their jaw set for delicious Mexican food and who have found upon arriving at 1124 Sparta St., the home of Chabelitas Mexican Restaurant Grill, that the popular restaurant is closed. 

With many of the windows covered and what appears to be a dining room in disarray with equipment stored in the middle of it, the restaurant certainly seems to be inactive. Whether that is a permanent or temporary situation, I am uncertain. My attempts to contact managers or owners of the restaurant were unsuccessful and I haven't been made aware of any public announcements they may have made about the status of the establishment. 

The story of Chabelitas has been a bumpy one in the last couple of years with periods of closure and reopening. The restaurant opened in Oct. 2012, owned by Teo Diaz and Pablo Gonzalez Rosales. On May 25, 2022 the Southern Standard reported the restaurant was shut down and the property was seized by the state for "nonpayment of Tennessee State taxes by virtue of a levy issued by the Tennessee Department of Revenue, Tax Enforcement Division."

Pablo Gonzalez Rosales reportedly paid the Department of Revenue on May, 27, 2022 and was allowed to reopen for business on that day. On June 6, 2022, he was arrested and charged with storage of liquor for sale without having a valid liquor license for the business. He posted $5,000 bond and was released less that two hours after his booking and the restaurant was open for business the following day. 

I can't pinpoint exactly when diners began noticing the most recent closure but it hasn't appeared to be open for months. The restaurant's most recent post on its Facebook page is from Feb. 24.

A visit to the Register of Deed's office revealed the owner of the property is listed as Maria Isabel Morales Vazquez from Smithville according to the most recent deed on file, which was recorded on June 12, 2015. 

So for all of the questions I've been asked, that's all I know about Chabelitas for now. 

Until next Week,

same biz time,

same biz page

As always, send your business tips to editor@southernstandard.com or call (931) 473-2191. Thanks for reading. And remember, if you don't already subscribe to the Southern Standard or if you need to renew, there's not a better time to do it than this week.