Private-equity-owned gastrobar Bar Louie has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after closing 38 restaurants and arranging to sell its remaining locations to the chain’s lenders, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bar Louie’s corporate parent, BL Restaurants Holding LLC, and three affiliates filed for chapter 11 yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., after facing increased competition and declining sales. Slumping sales cut into funds for much-needed restaurant refreshes and equipment modernization, according to Howard Meitiner, Bar Louie’s restructuring chief. The resulting “inconsistent brand experience, coupled with increased competition and the general decline in customer traffic visiting traditional shopping locations and malls,” prompted owner Sun Capital Partners Inc. to close 38 unprofitable Bar Louie restaurants immediately before Monday’s bankruptcy filing. The Addison, Texas-based company has put its remaining corporate-owned restaurants, about 72 in all, up for sale with its lenders agreeing to serve as a stalking horse, or lead bidder, in a bankruptcy sale, subject to higher and better offers. The lenders have agreed to acquire the restaurant’s assets with a credit bid of $82.5 million, court documents show.
