Bennigan’s Rides into the Sunset

Bennigan’s Sign, Houston

In one fell soup, Bennigan’s has apparently shuttered all of its U.S. locations. And the store is taking its sister restaurant, the ailing Steak & Ale, along with it. The chains’ are filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Both are subsidiaries of Metromedia Restaurant Group, based in Plano.

Over at Houstonist, Katherine Shilcutt Gleave surveys the confusion resulting from the unannounced overnight shutdowns:

Houston is home to at least 20 Bennigan’s restaurants in the city and surrounding metropolitan areas. Calls placed this morning by Houstonist to the locations netted the same result each time: a phone ringing off the hook and no answering service. Only one location answered the phone when we called: the Bennigan’s in Greenspoint off Beltway 8. The befuddled-sounding manager at that location politely told us that they were, in fact, closed. He further confirmed that all other Bennigan’s in Houston were closed as well.

Steak & Ale had 6 Houston-area locations.

Photo: Flickr user alex_user

5 Comment

  • They’ll just take all there locations (which were leases) and turn them over into new restaurants.

    As part of the bankruptcy, they’ll probably re-name and rehire people (at a lower wage) and be back as something new.

    Circuit City did something similar by firing all the $11 per hour employees and and offering to rehire at $7 or less. So there is a precedent.

  • I’m not terribly sad to see Bennigan’s go. The only pleasant memory I have of them is my brother working there in the mid-1990s and sneaking me appetizers all the time. They might not have been good, but they were free!

    They had run their course, but there was surely a better way of letting their poor employees know than *this* debacle.

    I love the picture you chose, BTW. Fits your headline perfectly! :)

  • Why is God so cruel?

    Where am I going to get my Monte Cristo sandwich now?

  • This is a good news for many who hate chain restaurants and those who love anything that’s high priced organic ingredients. The corporation haters also should also celebrate people losing jobs while looking down at these jobs from their comfortable desk while surfing the internet on their iMac or any Mac variants, victims.

    This is a great news for those who hate private capitalism, hurray! It’s great news for the state capitalists.

  • I’ll mis eating the Monte Cristo.
    I will not miss the writhing agony of allnight heartburn that followed.