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Village Inn owner files for Chapter 11, closes several locations

Posted: January 28th, 2020, 11:22 am
by SamSpade
5 Utah Locations Affected
Federal court records show American Blue Ribbon Holding filed a notice for bankruptcy Monday. The Tennessee-based limited liability company owns restaurant chains Village Inn, Bakers Square and Max & Erma’s.

In all, 33 “underperforming” Village Inn and Bakers Square locations were closed as the company restructures, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. The report says the move was made as American Blue Ribbon suffered a continued slide in sales that began in 2017.
Village Inn last filed for re-organizational bankruptcy during the 2009 great recession. The chain at that time was based in Denver, Colo. but it appears someone else is running them now.

Re: Village Inn owner files for Chapter 11, closes several locations

Posted: January 28th, 2020, 5:36 pm
by Super S
It looks like a few locations around Portland have closed as well. I recently saw a news story which showed a Village Inn sign in the background which had been painted black, this was in NE Portland. A Google search shows a location near Lloyd Center has also closed. This is a restaurant chain that I have seen many times but never bothered to eat there.

Re: Village Inn owner files for Chapter 11, closes several locations

Posted: January 28th, 2020, 9:22 pm
by rwsandiego
Super S wrote: January 28th, 2020, 5:36 pm..This is a restaurant chain that I have seen many times but never bothered to eat there.
Same here. I came close to eating there once, but the Chili's across the street was calling and I ate there instead.

Re: Village Inn owner files for Chapter 11, closes several locations

Posted: January 29th, 2020, 6:51 pm
by storewanderer
One time I ate at a Village Inn with some older relatives. It was about what you'd expect. Breakfast at dinner, but you had to ask for a separate breakfast menu. They had "free pie" promotion with any entree and what a lousy presentation that free pie was. Not sure if they ran it through a grinder first or what, completely unappetizing mushy glob. I actually had high expectations for the pie given their connection to Baker's Square.

Re: Village Inn owner files for Chapter 11, closes several locations

Posted: February 1st, 2020, 6:23 am
by cjd
I like Village Inn but tend to not think of it when going out to dinner. Probably because the end of town it's on mainly has fast food places, so I tend to not think to go to that area. Typically if I want breakfast I go to IHOP, but Village Inn is better IMO.

Re: Village Inn owner files for Chapter 11, closes several locations

Posted: February 2nd, 2020, 10:28 am
by Brian Lutz
For the most part, Village Inn seems to be basically interchangeable with places like Denny's and Shari's, and none of these seem to be doing all that well. Village Inn has never had more than a handful of locations here and I'm not sure if any of those are even still around. Shari's seems to be on a long-term trajectory toward just fading into irrelevance, and at least seven Denny's locations that I know of have closed around here in the last few years. Village Inn seems to be more popular down in Utah (which is where most of the ones I've been to are located) although none of what they serve there seems to be all that exciting.