Same thing here. It’s just when people chime in with the “chain always bad, local always good” comments that tend to bug me. It’s an opinion that’s especially prevalent in my hometown; people would take the overcooked everything at a meat-and-three old people’s restaurant over something at a new upscale chain because the local is more “authentic, real, genuine and honest”.
Authentic, real, genuine and honest disentary.
NEVER tell a **Stout ** Irishman that he is an I.P.A.
I can admit when I’ve been bested, and this is good. The Irish Publican Army. Wait till the guys at the pub hear that one…I smell a new trivia team name.
This may have been mentioned, but I just got an email from a nearby Bennigan’s because I signed up for the email coupon thing, and they are staying in business. This makes me very happy because I really like the one near here. There were two, but one closed a year ago. Either way, the Guinness-glazed shrimp are amazing.
Brendon Small
Know what you’re feeling. But knowing from personal experience that every other corner in Phoenix has a hole-in-the-wall mama y papa taco shop, I imagine the comment on Charlotte is born of ignorance, too.
The black n blue burger was pretty good, as were southwest eggrolls. Hubby and I spent many an evening there dining during my first pregnancy, as it was right next to the hospital so we’d go there before or after the baby classes for a bite to eat.
Shoulda went there last weekend like were planning to, /sniff.
A little more info has been made public in this article, and it jibes with what I’ve gotten from my insiders … “This came at the end of a two-year period in which the group had several run-ins with the state comptroller. These included creative accounting surrounding the unclaimed checks of past employees as well as charging employees bogus “service fees.” … The restaurant group had failed to honor the terms of a lending agreement with GE Capital Solutions and needed to restructure debt in order to survive.” That particular instance of ‘creative accounting’ was in the past; but it seemed to one of my friends that MRG still had an institutional tendency to try to ‘bury’ bad operational issues by changing up the accounting to make the situation look better on the surface. Part of the idea behind that strategy was that it made the company look better to potential investors. :smack: The problem is, the investors tend to look at backing out when their investments don’t pay off, which GE was evidently already seriously thinking about over a year ago. Their cash was all that was keeping the company operational–one of my friends’ immediate reaction to the Chapter 7 announcement was the GE must have finally pulled the plug.
Outside investment is supposed to make it possible for your company to increase it’s efficiency & profits, which you can then share with the investors. When all the investment money does is (barely) keep you operational, your strategy isn’t working.
You can read here about some of the issues that were facing one Steak & Ale over many months, due to cash-flow issues from the corporate parent. One thing I’ve been told was that most franchises were bringing in profits for their owners, but that the company-owned stores as a whole were deeply in the red. I don’t know if that says something about the advantages of local management in general or about the competence of MRG as restaurant managers.
I’m thinking it’s time for me to start a real Irish chain eatery in Ohio.
You mean Mavis Winkle’s isn’t authentic? Thank you, God.
To my delight, it turns out that Florida-wide chain Gator’s Dockside now has the Monte Cristo on the menu.
I’d go.
But, be warned “fake” or not Sullivan’s Irish Pub and Restaraunt is a great place to be.