Fast-growing Tilted Kilt chain actually closes a location – in Mesa

Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery, the Celtic-themed “breastaurant” chain based in Tempe, is one of the food and beverage industry’s more successful concepts. Since launching in 2003, it has grown to 70-plus locations in 26 states and Canada.

For the first time in my memory, though, the chain has closed a location – the one formerly found at Gilbert and Baseline roads in Mesa. It had opened in 2008, taking over the short-lived Atomic 29 Grill.

Was an eatery featuring scantily-clad female servers – some call it the Irish Hooters – simply too unappetizing for a city considered one of the state’s most conservative?

I called corporate headquarters in Tempe, but couldn’t get a reason for the closure. All they would say is no new locations are in the works for Mesa – or anywhere else in the East Valley, for that matter.

That leaves the Tilted Kilt at Kyrene and Warner in Tempe as the last one in the East Valley.

The chain received national attention last November when its president, Ron Lynch, was featured on the CBS reality show “Undercover Boss.”

Earlier: Tilted Kilt founder on ‘Undercover Boss’