Bar Louie Files for Chapter 11 Again

Bar Louie (Dallas) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in five years. The chain said operations will continue as usual at its 30 remaining units while it undergoes a restructuring.

This chain previously filed for Chapter 11 in January 2020 after closing nearly 40 locations. In its coverage of the latest filing, Restaurant Business reported that Bar Louie had asked for permission to reject the leases of 14 underperforming and unprofitable restaurants. The locations — in Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Michigan, Colorado and New Jersey — were closed in the months leading up to the filing.

RB also said in 2023, Bar Louie’s sales were down 2.3% and it had 66 locations, less than half of the 134 it had at its peak in 2019, according to Technomic data. It is the latest casual-dining chain to succumb to bankruptcy following Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, Bucca di Beppo and On the Border and others, which all blamed a combination of pandemic effects and inflation for declining sales and traffic, the publication noted.