Bennigan's Files Bankruptcy; Closes Company Stores Nationwide

Ponderosa, Bonanza won't be affected by Chapter 7 filing of S&A Restaurant Corp.

R&I Staff -- Restaurants and Institutions, 7/29/2008 9:57:00 AM

Bennigan's interior Shortly after 12 a.m., Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern began notifying managers at company-owned locations nationwide that their restaurants would close today, following the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing of S & A Restaurant Corp., a subsidiary of Plano, Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group.

The closures also affect company-owned locations of Steak & Ale, but the filing does not include Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses, also operated by Metromedia. Independently owned Bennigan’s franchise locations remain open.

Bennigan’s, ranked No. 60 overall and the nation’s ninth-largest casual-dining concept on Restaurants & Institutions’ 2008 Top 400 restaurant chains, had estimated sales of $652.5 million last year. In recent years, the chain suffered from multiple management changes. In 2007, former Bennigan’s Marketing Director Clay Dover was promoted to president and chief marketing officer of Metromedia Restaurant Group, but Dover stepped down earlier this year to join Baton Rouge, La.-based Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

In R&I’s Consumers’ Choice in Chains survey last year, consumers rated Bennigan’s 13th out of 15 casual-dining companies. The chain fared most poorly among respondents the service category, where it ranked last among all casual-dining chains, and in value, where its rating was second lowest, behind only Houston-based Rainforest Café.