Bennigans shutting down Chapter 7, Austin Locations Closed
posted by pylorns
Bennigans takes it in the poop shoot
From the WallStreet Journal today:
National restaurant chains Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale have closed their doors and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, shuttering more than 300 locations and letting go of thousands of employees.
It is one of the country’s largest restaurant bankruptcies and eliminates two sit-down chains that have been part of the casual-dining landscape for decades. The chains will liquidate and aren’t likely to re-open.
Late Monday, managers at Bennigan’s and Steak & Ale were told not to open restaurants the next day, according to two people familiar with the matter. Employees were told there wouldn’t be enough money to pay them for the rest of the week, these people said.
As far as how this will impact Austin, KXAN reports that an Austin area Franchise Manager stated they planed to stay open.
An Austin franchise manager said his store planned on staying open, as well as all of the other Bennigan’s franchise stores.
NBC 5 called the company’s headquarters, which yielded a “no comment” early Tuesday.
I’ve called one of the local ones on 183 and received no answer so that to me smells of closing. Another sign of down-turning economy. Interestingly enough TGI-Fridays and Bennigans all recently went over store make overs to stay afloat but Bennigans seemed to continue to downward spiral, which sucks because the food there (used to be) is pretty good. As of recently stuff has gotten much more greasy. But that said, I used to love the location in the Houston Galleria.
Another interesting tid-bit is if you ever watched the movie Office Space, “Chotchkie’s” is based loosely on Bennigan’s and TGIF restaurants. (More TGIF though because of the flair..)
Urbangrounds has also posted about this. He actually worked for them. I have a couple buddies that have worked for Bennigans/S&A as well.
Here are the Austin Locations from the KXAN site:
Bennigan’s Grill & Taverns in Austin
7604 N. Interstate Highway 35 (512) 451-7953
12415 N. Interstate Highway 35 (512) 821-1319
13995 US 183 North (512) 257-7713 (reported closed)
301 Barton Springs Rd. (512) 472-7902 (reported closed)
Houston Closings:
| Bennigan’s (CLOSED) | |||||
| 1030 W Sam Houston Pkwy N | Houston TX | ||||
| 10690 Hwy 290 | Houston TX | ||||
| 1200 McKinney St | Houston TX | ||||
| 12008 East Fwy | Houston TX | ||||
| 1301 W Davis St | Conroe TX | ||||
| 1330 W Bay Area Blvd | Friendswood TX | ||||
| 140 FM 1960 E Bypass | Humble TX | ||||
| 17125 State Highway 249 | Houston TX | ||||
| 20210 Katy Fwy | Katy TX | ||||
| 211 FM 1960 Rd W | Houston TX | ||||
| 222 N Sam Houston Pkwy E | Houston TX | ||||
| 2700 South Loop W | Houston TX | ||||
| 3963 Kirby Dr | Houston TX | ||||
| 4505 FM 1960 Rd W | Houston TX | ||||
| 5015 Westheimer Rd | Houston TX | ||||
| 7143 Gulf Fwy | Houston TX | ||||
| 9811 Bissonnet St | Houston TX | ||||
Tags: bankrupt, bennigans, closing
Posted in Austin Links, news | 4 Comments »
July 29th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
The company-owned ones are the 183 and Barton Springs locations, so they’re now closed. The other two should still be open.
And I particularly like the way KXAN took another NBC affiliate’s story, reworked it, and displayed the whole thing as if they wrote it. The nearest “NBC 5″ is in Dallas.
July 29th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Cool deal, thanks for additional info about the company owned stores.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:21 am
I had a pretty big success at work about a year ago, and my boss said think you by giving me a stack of old Bennigan’s gift cards.
Guess I should have gotten around to using them sooner.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:11 am
The one on BSR closed a couple of months ago, unrelated to the bankruptcy (I think it was a parking/ skyrocketing rent issue- isolated to that location).