What’s the future of Logan’s Roadhouse, Gordon Biersch with parent company in bankruptcy?
The parent company for the Logan’s Roadhouse national steakhouse chain has filed for bankruptcy and closed locations, but the two Grand Strand locations are not being impacted because they are independently-operated franchise restaurants.
So the Logan’s near Coastal Grand Mall and Barefoot Landing remain open for curbside to-go orders and are not in danger of closing.
Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant, which has a location at Market Common, is a corporate location of CraftWorks Holdings LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reorganization on March 3, and is temporarily closed, however, according to CraftWorks’ chief marketing officer Josh Kern.
“We made the decision to shelter and protect everything humanly possible, just to protect liquidity,” Kern said. “Once we’re over the [coronavirus] situation and local and state and federal authorities allow us to reopen, we will reopen.”
Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom in Garden City is a Craftworks brand as well but is a franchise location operated by Collier Restaurant Group out of Sevierville, Tennessee.
“Our store is closed now due to mandates of stay at home and all of our employees will be welcomed back when we reopen,” said Collier sales and marketing manager Amanda Barnes in an email Thursday. Collier operates one other restaurant on the Strand – Flapjack’s Pancake Cabin in Garden City.
Kern said the Strand’s Gordon Biersch employees have been laid off and are eligible to receive stimulus unemployment benefits. “Our intention when we reopen is to hire them back,” he said. “We want to get our employees back and working. That’s the heart and soul of our company.”
Kern said CraftWorks had 261 company stores shortly before the bankruptcy filing and closed some permanently. “A bulk of them will definitely reopen,” he said.
According to Restaurant Business magazine, CraftWorks has 77 franchised stores carrying the company’s brand names that are not included in the bankruptcy proceeding.
The Strand’s Logan’s restaurants are operated by CMAC Inc., which is headed by Myrtle Beach resident Chuck McWhorter.
McWhorter is a Logan’s founder who retired in the late 1990s but got bored within a year, then built franchise restaurants in the Carolinas and Augusta, Georgia. CMAC operates 18 Logan’s locations.
“Our stores are doing really good. We’re in good shape and we’ll make it through this thing,” McWhorter said.
He said CMAC has continued to pay all of its more than 100 total managers their full salaries, and all employees were paid until last week when the company furloughed 1,600 of its hourly-wage workers, who he expects to collect unemployment.
“I’m hoping that this thing passes pretty quickly because it has been a challenge. We’re getting killed like everybody else,” said McWhorter, who has filed for Small Business Association Paycheck Protection Program loans that would allow him to bring his workers back on his payroll.
“We’re doing a little bit of business but not a lot. It’s more of a service for the community,” McWhorter said. “I think it’s kind of a responsibility to make sure people have some options to go out to eat. . . . We’re trying to keep the doors open, and the thought is if we do the right thing and take care of our people, when we come out on the other side of this we’ll be ahead of the curve.”
CraftWorks has additional specialty brands including ChopHouse & Brewery, Big River Grille & Brewing Works, AIA Ale Works Restaurant & Taproom, Ragtime Tavern Seafood & Grill, Seven Bridges Grille & Brewer and the dueling piano concept Sing Sing.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 7:28 PM.
