Specialty Restaurant Group - January 2007 Restaurant Closings

January 2007 Restaurant Closings

On January 2, 2007, SRG suddenly closed 20 of its remaining restaurants. The restaurant closings included eighteen American Café restaurants, one Silver Spoon Café restaurant, and the only remaining L&N Seafood Grill restaurant. In the same week, the company ended its seven-year relationship with Ruby Tuesday, relocating its corporate headquarters from the Ruby Tuesday office in which it has previously leased space.

Several of the sites on which the now-closed restaurants operated had been subleased from Ruby Tuesday. In a January 5, 2007 interview with Knoxville News Sentinel, Rick Johnson, senior vice president of Ruby Tuesday, indicated that he was aware of the closing but that Ruby Tuesday had "no immediate plans for space leased by SRG." After asked what his reaction was to the Tallahassee, Florida store closing, the then General Manager of that store Michael Stepp responded he would now have more time to lower his golf handicap in preparation for the Nationwide Tour. Another one of the managers at the Jacksonville Landing, Florida store, Allan Delrosario, expressed his shock as well to the surprising news because he was expecting for SRG to expand its restaurant operation in Las Vegas.