Three Ninety Nine Restaurants will close in Connecticut this Saturday — in Manchester, Newington, and Orange, Brad Schiff, the chain’s vice president for marketing, said last week.
Schiff said business at the restaurants was down due to the recession. He added that there will likley be more closings later this year.
The company is trying to place as many of the roughly 30 employees being laid off from each of the closing locations to Ninety Nine Restaurants nearby, Schiff said. The chain also has restaurants in Vernon, Enfield and Forestville.
The Manchester restaurant, at 90 Buckland St., opened in 2005, in the former Ground Round eatery. The Ground Round Restaurant chain closed its Manchester restaurant in October 2004. Ninety Nine was founded in 1952 and is operated by Nashville, Tenn.-based O’Charley’s Inc.
The parent company operates 97 Ninety Nine Restaurants in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In addition, O’Charley’s operates more than 200 restaurants under its corporate name throughout the Southeast and Midwest.
The company also operates Stony River Legendary Steaks restaurants in Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The Ninety Nine closings come on the heels of Boston-based Uno Restaurant Holdings Corp.’s shuttering its Uno Chicago Grill restaurant in Manchester as part of a 16-restaurant shutdown across the country.
The Uno Restaurant in Manchester at 180 Deming St., opened in April 1995. Originally it was called Pizzeria Uno.
