Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Alpha8472
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Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by Alpha8472 »

Luby's, Inc. which owns various brands such as Luby's, Fuddruckers, Koo Koo Roo, and Cheeseburger in Paradise plans to liquidate.

Koo Koo Roo was once an intriguing concept, but their restaurants in San Francisco disappeared several years ago.

https://www.nrn.com/family-dining/luby- ... s-and-more
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by veteran+ »

Alpha8472 wrote: September 9th, 2020, 3:43 am Luby's, Inc. which owns various brands such as Luby's, Fuddruckers, Koo Koo Roo, and Cheeseburger in Paradise plans to liquidate.

Koo Koo Roo was once an intriguing concept, but their restaurants in San Francisco disappeared several years ago.

https://www.nrn.com/family-dining/luby- ... s-and-more
Koo Koo Roo in West Hollywood was awesome and extremely popular.

Moved back here in April.............GONE!

What happened?
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by klkla »

I'm also curious about what happened to Koo Koo Roo. I used to go to the one on Larchmont & Beverly in L.A. and it was really good.
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: September 9th, 2020, 1:00 pm I'm also curious about what happened to Koo Koo Roo. I used to go to the one on Larchmont & Beverly in L.A. and it was really good.
Koo Koo Roo as I recall was once publicly traded and went bankrupt. Fuddruckers then got control of Koo Koo Roo and around 2010-2012 era Fuddruckers went bankrupt as well. That was when Pappas got control of Fuddruckers and merged it with Luby's. By then there were only a few Koo Koo Roo left, and Luby's did not keep those open for long. I think there were just too few locations for it to make sense.

Koo Koo Roo kind of seemed like El Pollo Loco meets Boston Market...

Pappas runs a lot of very good restaurants under separate ownership from Lubys/Fuddruckers. Pappadeux, etc. Very good. I was a little disappointed when they threw Fuddruckers under the not very good Lubys.

You can ask for skinless and then seasoned then grilled a bit longer chicken at El Pollo Loco. I suggest the request at slow times not when they are busy.
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Maybe Darden could buy them
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 10th, 2020, 7:01 pm Maybe Darden could buy them
I think that Pappas let Fuddruckers go like this, speaks volumes as to the future viability of the brand. But there does seem to be a base of franchisees out there who make the brand work in scattered locations with various formats.

In Sparks, NV there are (were) actually 2 Fuddruckers a mile apart. The first one (Lincoln Way) opened during the last recession at the Legends complex; at the time it was the only food service at the complex (when Scheels opened) and opened as a franchise of Luther Mack (a former 25+year McDonalds operator who sold his McDonalds off after some labor issues took place) and this Fuddruckers did very well and it was run well, overstaffed almost, and gained a following quickly. This Fuddruckers was a large facility, nicely finished inside, and was built to do very high volume. There was a major effort to execute well with this location and the franchisee a really good job with it. Bill Cosby was at the grand opening over a decade ago which was pretty neat. They served breakfast certain days as well. At some point the Fuddruckers became a corporate owned Fuddruckers under Luby's and the operation of the place nosedived and prices went up; business dropped off like a rock. Meanwhile numerous other restaurants opened at the Legends complex. Then, the Fuddruckers group sold a franchise to a TA Truck Stop (McCarran Blvd) a mile away and a Fuddruckers was opened in the TA Truck Stop so now there were two Fuddruckers a mile apart which made little sense.

As of last week the corporate Fuddrucker's in Sparks was sitting there with signage saying it was temporarily closed. I don't think it ever reopened after COVID or if it did, it was very brief. It is now off the website and appears to be closed for good. But the truck stop one is still open.
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by buckguy »

Fuddrucker's never really made sense to even before it had been bought and sold a couple times. They had some odd locations---the one I remember in Atlanta was in a flagship Home Depot and despite a steady business was closed when the store was downgraded. They didn't seem to have a real strategy for geography or the kinds of places they located. Given so many other "fancy hamburger" chains have come onto the market and their lack of a coherent identity, I'm surprised they didn't vanish a while ago.
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: September 20th, 2020, 5:12 pm Fuddrucker's never really made sense to even before it had been bought and sold a couple times. They had some odd locations---the one I remember in Atlanta was in a flagship Home Depot and despite a steady business was closed when the store was downgraded. They didn't seem to have a real strategy for geography or the kinds of places they located. Given so many other "fancy hamburger" chains have come onto the market and their lack of a coherent identity, I'm surprised they didn't vanish a while ago.
Fuddrucker's had a lot of franchisees... kind of doing their own thing, with locations in odd places. Up until recently there were 5-6 locations up in Montana. One had video gaming devices inside. Some have bars inside. Others focused more on family groups and had had a lot of arcade games, etc. I kind of liked the concept but don't think the food was worth the price they charged.

Now we will see how these franchise Fuddruckers continue along minus the corporate parent with corporate stores to spread a marketing strategy and brand management over. They won't go away overnight. But it won't be easy for them.
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by pseudo3d »

buckguy wrote: September 20th, 2020, 5:12 pm Fuddrucker's never really made sense to even before it had been bought and sold a couple times. They had some odd locations---the one I remember in Atlanta was in a flagship Home Depot and despite a steady business was closed when the store was downgraded. They didn't seem to have a real strategy for geography or the kinds of places they located. Given so many other "fancy hamburger" chains have come onto the market and their lack of a coherent identity, I'm surprised they didn't vanish a while ago.
Fuddruckers changed its logo a few years ago but I've never seen any stores with the newer logo. Maybe it was the lack of Red Robin, Five Guys, etc. but Fuddruckers always seemed to draw a steady business in my town from its opening in the mid-2000s to its closure during COVID-19. It had a vague "city storefront" theme (same as defunct similar restaurant Flakey Jake's), a solid daily special (involving a quarter pound burger, fries, and a drink for about the price as you'd at a McDonald's or Burger King), a dress-your-own burger bar, a good proprietary fry sauce, and a melted cheese sauce that you could pump out for fries/burger/whatever.

As for Luby's, H-E-B sells a number of Luby's-branded items (macaroni and cheese and I think fish sticks) as an exclusive product, but I have no idea who manufactures them. Wouldn't be surprised if H-E-B takes the trademark if nothing else (it's possible that H-E-B will try to sell the remaining Luby's restaurants as franchisee options but I wouldn't keep my fingers crossed).

There are also a few restaurants (Pearland at least) that are combo Fuddruckers/Luby's stores.
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Re: Fuddrucker's and Luby's To Liquidate

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: September 20th, 2020, 10:42 pm Now we will see how these franchise Fuddruckers continue along minus the corporate parent with corporate stores to spread a marketing strategy and brand management over. They won't go away overnight. But it won't be easy for them.
True - look at how long chains like Howard Johnson's lasted (OK, there is technically still one open but that one isn't really doing much and what they do do is, well...) and Ground Round still has about 15 locations left (or at least did before March - at this point it's hard to tell what is still open even if closed temporarily and what isn't).
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