All Bennigan's Restaurants Closing

Applebee's was recently absorbed by IHOP.

On a Bennigan's/Steak n Ale tangent, the SnA in the tourist district of Orlando was damaged by fire last night.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-bk-steak-ale-fire073008,0,6713546.story

 

Midnight Incendiary Supply active yesterday, I see . . . what a coincidence.

 

I looked into opening a franchise a while back and quickly discovered their franchise agreement was pretty much the worst in the business. And then when one actually came to my little city, I also discovered how lucky I was not to invest in a business that relied on selling $8 ice cream cones!

An lo and behold, it's corporate siblings now are Taco Time and Blimpie -- the future of that company couldn't be bleaker if it had a side gig selling Clinton/Edwards 08 stickers.

 

Steak and Ale closed too.

It's no doubt that at $40-$60 a pop for a family of four, there's a shitload of these closings on the way. Gas or an overpriced meal? Let me have a millisecond to think about it.

 

Eff Bennigan's and Steak 'n Ale.

Though I was surprised to learn that another low-rentish chain in my town is actually quite good.

IHOP. The IHOP where I'm at almost makes up for the bug-in-my-food urban shithole IHOPs I used to frequent during my peak drinking days.

 

Starbucks closed in our town after only six months. Like they couldn't figure out in some sort of appraisal that two other independent coffee shops had gone belly up in the past two years. Do these assholes just put something in next to every Wal-Mart or what?

 

Leave it to me to find a way to bring down a thread about chain restaurants closing, but this news brings back a hard memory.

I waited tables at Steak & Ale for several years in college. One Saturday night, around closing, two guys get up from their table and go to the bathroom, and come back with big-ass guns. They backed us all, staff and patrons, up against the walls and robbed everyone, took a waitress hostage and demanded that the manager open the safe. He said he would, but only if they they would let the girl go and take him instead.

An employee had gotten out the back door and gone for help, and by the time the robbers (escapees from another state, in a stolen car) got outside the cops were arriving. They went to their car, and my manager (a HUGE guy) tried to resist when they forced him in and the guy shot him three times. At the end of the high-speed chase, cops found him dead in the back seat.

He was 35, married with three kids under 10. A goddamn senseless shame. I'll never shake the memory of that night.

The shooter was sentenced to death, and came close before it was stayed. As far as I can tell it's still tied up.

http://www.oag.state.tx.us/oagnews/release.php?id=843

 

Turkey O'Toole, bitch!

 

Goddamn, Arnold. That's some horrible shit.