The bankrupt company behind the Logan’s Roadhouse and Old Chicago restaurant chains has fired most of its 18,000 employees, adding to the swelling ranks of unemployed in the U.S. as the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic continues, the Wall Street Journal reported. CraftWorks Holdings Inc., which had planned to sell itself out of bankruptcy before the pandemic’s crushing impact on consumer activity, fired the bulk of its workforce yesterday and terminated employee-benefit plans. Employees have been furloughed since early March, when the casual-dining company idled its restaurants and brewpubs amid widespread restrictions on social gatherings. The Nashville-based CraftWorks, which private-equity firm Centerbridge Partners LP created after rolling up a number of other eateries. Consumer-facing companies such as restaurants, retailers and movie theaters are broadly ratcheting down their operations in response to government guidelines on social distancing, cutting employees’ hours and resorting to furloughs and layoffs to control costs. CraftWorks entered bankruptcy with 338 restaurant locations under brands including Logan’s Roadhouse, Old Chicago Restaurants, Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery, Big River Grille & Brewing Works, The ChopHouse and A1A Ale Works. The company also owns Ragtime Tavern, Seven Bridges Grille and Brewery and the Big Bang at Sing Sing.
