That Ain't Cartwright, Hoss: Bonanza Chain Might Meat its Maker
Yesterday, just as New York City- and Atlanta-based Atalaya Capital Management was rescuing Bennigan's and Steak & Ale from Chapter 7, their parent company was putting more of its chains into Chapter 11. Plano-based Metromedia Steak House is trying to reorganize the Ponderosa and Bonanza franchises in the hopes of making the chains profitable again -- though, as The Wall Street Journal notes this morning, the eateries are merely "the latest casualt[ies] in a miserable year for the casual-dining business."
The paper also notes that Metromedia will also shutter an undisclosed number of restaurants -- it ain't saying how many, but it does acknowledge the closing of 25 thus far. Which must deeply disappoint Sam and Charles Wyly, who wound up with DeKalb-born Dan Blocker's Bonanza restaurants in 1967 and grew the chain to some 600 restaurants before selling it to Metromedia in 1989, the same year it acquired Ponderosa and the Norm Brinker-founded Steak & Ale chain. --Robert Wilonsky
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