Most likely the nessesary products are produced by license from 3rd party food supply manufacturors. Who, I imagine, could continue to supply said items as they themselves are probubly not going out of business.
Sure, but the demand for those particular items might dissappear enough to cease production. Say the same thing happened at a resturant I’m more familiar with: TGI Fridays. Would it be worth it for the people who make Jack Daniels Grilling Sauce That Tastes Nothing Like Jack Daniels to keep up production if their client base went from say 500 stores to 15 stores? There’s just not enough money in making that product anymore, so those things begin to dissappear.
I’m betting that the non corporate Bennigans will be open as long as it takes to sell off the stock in the freezer and rent the building to someone else. Hopefully in our case, a Sonic.
You’re guessing, I know that some local restaurants with only 5 locations still find a supplier.
Eww, sonic. To each his own.
I wonder what Jon Stewart’s going to do for a second job now.
Yeah, whatever happened to Carlos Murphy’s and the Ground Round?
That’s true, I am guessing based on the fact that those chain places seem to have some very specialized propriatry cuisine. Maybe they’ll go the “Now available in your grocers freezer” route to keep volume up enough? It’s all guesses for me at this point.
You don’t know about the Sonic thing though. They advertise at almost every commcercial break around Chicago, but the closest Sonic is in Peoria IL, which might as well be Cedar Rapids Iowa for all the good it does me. I want to try it!!!
Ground Round still exists, actually, although it’s down to less than 50 stores. I don’t know the current status of Carlos Murphy’s.
Wow. I haven’t seen one in, like, 15 years. I wonder if they still have Bingo the Clown on weekends.
My favorite is the Black and Bleu burger, which is blackened Angus patty topped with bleu cheese crumbles, crispy bacon and a touch of bleu cheese dressing.
The independently owned and operated restaurants are remaning open, so one that will still be open is about 20 minutes from my home.
ETA: The Bennigan’s website is still up.
For one memorable semester in college, I was Bingo the Clown.
If only I could forget. The horror. The h-h-horror. Sob.
If you ever make it to Woodstock, VT, I highly recommend the Mountain Creamery’s Vermonte Cristo. Turkey, ham, Vermont cheddar on French toast, with maple syrup for dipping. /drool
I have a feeling Chili’s or TGIF are at this very moment looking into offering a Monte Cristo.
Starbucks is closing, though- 60-something of it’s 80 Australian stores get canned on Sunday, and it’s the same story in the US, with something like 600 cafes getting closed in the US and many more overseas.
Story from ABC News (the Australian one)
I read somewhere else that globally, 12,000 people stand to lose their jobs as a result of this.
There aren’t enough barista jobs here to go around for the people that are about to find themselves out on their ear this Sunday, so that’s not going to help the local employment market at all.
I don’t see how anyone wins from this in the long term, to be honest…
Yeah, because the worst mom & pop serves much better food than the best chain, always.
Insert the standard Buffalonian “no chains in WNY because it’s more honest, authentic and real blah blah blah and all the local food is better and we don’t want to be like Phoenix and Charlotte” cliche here.
Dude, do you think they have a whole assembly line devoted to making Jack Daniels Grilling Sauce? They make dozens of grilling sauces and slap different labels on them. They’ll just relabel the stuff and keep selling it.
Maybe they’d be in better shape if they weren’t cooking their salads… 
The Bennigans we passed (and sometimes stopped in) in Vernon, Connecticut got torn down over a year ago.
The nearest Bennigan’s to us has looked like it’s closed for over a month now. I drove past last night – it was dark and quiet at a time it should’ve been hopping. Sadly, there were rows of still fresh-looking pennants outside.
The Houlihans in the Mall down the street closed a couple of years cago, and no other restaurant seems to be able to make a go of the location. Are all the faux-Irish chain eateries disappearing?
Yes, it’s the Irish Resturant Army that’s behind the whole thing.
Amen. I don’t know about you, but I like both the local unique eateries, and sometimes, the big chains.
That would be the Irish Publican Army, no?