Bennigan's closes

Interesting news! The ironic thing is that we just ate at Bennigan's on Sunday for the first time in years. My partner is vegetarian and the only passable meal was the $17.95 salmon or the fish & chips for $7.99, all the salads come with meat. I had a very good cooked to order blue cheese burger but partners fish & chips, while generous was heavily fried. We decided never again, now we don't have to worry!

http://cbs11tv.com/business/bennigans.restaurant.shutdown.2.782619.html

while I didn't eat there often, I did like bennigans. It never really seemed to have a crowd so I'm not shocked that it's closed. You have to respect a chain restaurant that had guinness listed as an appetizer

Tough news for alot of working folks. 800 restaurants closing is what I hear.

quote:

Originally posted by kland01s

We decided never again, now we don't have to worry!

You don't have to worry? Were you going to worry that someone would force you to eat there?

Actually, I do worry. As much as we make fun of the fast food industry, that's a lot of people who have just lost their jobs with no severance. If a well established chain with a lot of holdings goes down, where does it stop? You may dance at the demise of a chain, but you know it has to be damn tough for the mom & pops out there right now too.

The demise of Bennigans is just the beginning. How many are next??? Some seems to rejoince at their demise but I believe many more are to come.

Folks, I have changed my banking to make sure that I am insured. It appears that bad times are on us. Watch you rear end.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Well, it looks like Bennigans and Steak and Ale were owned by the same group, so both closed.

I was never a fan of Bennigans, but I kinda liked the 1950's steakhouse feel of the Steak and Ale.

Just want to make the point that some of the Bennigan's are franchised. The Ground Round situation was similar. The GR franchisees kept the brand running.

The Bennigans in Memphis (the only one in the state) will remain open. I drove by there yesterday and they had their OPEN sign flashing.

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

The demise of Bennigans is just the beginning. How many are next??? Some seems to rejoince at their demise but I believe many more are to come.

I agree with Paul, and not just because people are tightening their belts. Some of this is self inflicted, by the suits at the Corp. HQ's.

Where they locate these places some times amazes me. We live less than 3 miles away from an interchange of I-95 in Central FL. Driving there we pass a Subway, Quizno's, Dunking Donuts, Cararaba's, Firehouse Sub, Domino's, McD, Burger King, Chicago Uno, Perkins, Wendy's, Denny's & Sonny's. Go past the highway & there's at least another half dozen other ones within 2 miles. There are no duplicates, but that's an awful lot of very similar food competing for your food dollar.

To me, a lot of these places somehow lost their identity. I mean are there any substantial differences among the menus of Bennigan's, Chilli's, Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday, Red Robin, Beef O'Bradys, etc. or Pizza Hut, Domino's or Papa John's. Each of these chains probably started with a unique concept, but over the years seemed to have morphed into one homogenuous blob.

I think that the McD/BK/Wendy's types will weather these times a lot better than those higher price chains.

A number of non-chain places have gone belly-up in Portland, Chile's has gone, so have Dunkin Donuts and Winchell's. We have so many independents that I rhink will survive but I think it will be a rough road for a lot of places.

Heard about it on WOAI this morning.According to the tv station,the Bennigan's here in San Antonio are not closing because they are independent.I assume that means they are owned by some franchisee.
Also,in the Food section today, the only Starbucks closing in San Antonio is at San Pedro and Bitters.

I agree 100% with Paul, aka Sundancer.
This is just the begining of a trend that will expand to all dinning and entertainment sectors.
As I've stated in other threads the fall months comming will be the real test of what's to come.
The coporate owned locations of Bennigans closeings may or should be offered to the franchise's first in that area. They may have an opportunity to pick up a spot for penneys on the dollar, providing they can get financeing at this time.
Then again how do you get the coustomers back? People are fickle, they will find another spot to gather after work and lock in there.

But as Paul said protect yourself, think ahead, and fasten your seat belts,
We are in for a ride folks. Chow Jim

now where will i get my monte cristo sandwich?

Always disappointed with Bennigans food....dont wish them ill in their demise, but remember they are a corporation-and own many other chains....

went to Bennigans once. same crap as tgif,applebees chilis etc.
no loss
we have one here in Daytona, you can't tell if it's oen or closed.

quote:

Originally posted by sk bob

went to Bennigans once. same crap as tgif,applebees chilis etc.
no loss
we have one here in Daytona, you can't tell if it's oen or closed.

That's essentially how it was at the Bennigan's in Bradenton on the west coast of Florida. Besides the fact that it was in a terrible location, the food was never really that good after they changed management not long before they closed here about five years ago. The last time I went, the staff just seemed like they were phoning it in, as if they knew the end was near.

Besides that, I also got real uncomfortable after I learned that the guy who wrote and directed the movie Waiting based some of it on his experiences working at the very Bennigan's I used to go to.

The Benningans and the Steak and Ale closed in my area several years ago. I didn't really have an opinion one way or another about Bennigans food. I do know however that it's our friends, neighbors and relatives that are losing their jobs.

quote:

Originally posted by ces1948
I do know however that it's our friends, neighbors and relatives that are losing their jobs.

That's the REAL sad part of this...
Why do companies have to do this so SUDDEN? On the news this morning, they said that some Bennigans managers received phone calls around midnight telling them do NOT open the doors in the morning!!!

It reminds me of what Danny Bonaduce said happened to him...
(aka Danny Partridge) When he went into work, the security guard told him "The Partridge Family does'nt live here anymore"

Can't these companies do it with CLASS?
This reminds me of tenants that move out in the middle of the night!

Ellen,

In the case of Bennigan's (S&A Restaurant Corp) I think we will have to wait a bit to find out why they closed so suddenly. It is known that S&A was in default of it loan agreement with GE Capital. Hopefully, some insiders will eventually talk about how it went down.

This whole thing is very similar to what happened with Ground Round in 2004. I once did find an account of what happened at corporate headquarters of Ground Round, but can't find it anymore. However, a thread on this web site did one of the best jobs of documenting what happened at the local restaurant and employee level when Ground Round shut down their corporate restaurants in 2004:
http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2671

Since S&A was part of Metromedia, it is not as easy to find out what was going on as with public companies that have to file reports with the SEC. But it stinks that employees were given no notice.

I also am hoping former S&A employees come here to tell their stories. I would especially like to know if local level management told them of the precarious financial stability of S&A. I was on the steakandale.com email list, and would get a few emails a month. The last one I got was on June 30th, 2008. I though that was curious. I also have a Steak and Ale gift card. Someone on another site suggested trying to use them at Bonanza/Ponderosa restaurants, also owned by Kluge/Metromedia.

According to a story in our local paper (Grand Rapids Press) there are 14 Bennigan's located in Michigan that are not company owned but rather are owned by a franchisee and they plan on remaining in full operation. Perhaps they will not keep the same name however.

I just logged on to www.bennigans.com and all that appears is a white screen with the word "Testing..." in the top left corner.

We have 2 Bennigan's in my area (Springfield and King of Prussia, where I used to work) and I've always been underwhelmed when we've eaten there (which was not often). I am very sorry for the folks who are losing their jobs. I have a few vegan friends and they could never find anything to order! And except for the Monte Cristo sandwich and "Death by Chocolate", the menu was pretty basic and not too exciting or interesting. I cannot really say I am surprised they are closing. But I will say that the restaurants in my area were always pretty crowded.

The St. Petersburg Times did this story on the aftermath of the Bennigan's closing with both corporate wide news and news specific to their local area. There are some surprising numbers such as 90 of the 170 restaurants S&A abandoned were profitable. Also, workers were stiffed on their last paychecks, and have to file bankruptcy court claims forms.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/retail/article767302.ece

Our Bennigan's closed 5 or 6 years ago. I'm not surprised the rest are following suit.