Second wind: funky Tex-Mex concept Chuy's is doubling its size as it grows in and outside of Texas.(UPSTARTS)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Chuy's CEO Steve Hislop likes to do conversions. So much so that three of the five or six new restaurants Chuy's will open in 2009 will have once housed another concept.

Five or six? This year? In this economy?

"Chuy's was capitalized with the intent to fund growth," says former investment banker Rod Guinn, who has advised Goode Partners LLC, the full-service chain's owner since 2006.

Joe Ferreira, a partner in the New York private equity firm, says the company's debt, which he would not disclose, shouldn't interfere with expansion plans: "Chuy's has acceptable financing for the foreseeable future."

In any …