Friday, August 15, 2008

R.I.P. Bennigan's (1976-2008)

Bennigan's is dead. Or is it?

Everyone knows Bennigan's Grill & Tavern. Or, uh, Bennigan's Restaurant. Whatever it is, everyone knows it. And apparently, it sucked. I just read a little bit about how in the 90's, they started cutting costs by bringing in frozen products, low quality meat, and other garbage. For some reason, Mr. Bennigan, or whoever the hell was in charge of things, just didn't know how to run a good restaurant. But it was something you could rely on. "Where can we go for dinner?" "Bennigan's." "God no."

On July 29, 2008, Bennigan's owner S&A Restaurant Corporation filed for bankruptcy and Bennigan's officially became defunct (along with some other chain called Steak and Ale). Overnight, they closed their doors forever. It seemed like our world might never be the same. "Where can we go for dinner?" "Bennigan's." "Doesn't exist anymore." Man. But then I found out something else. Roughly half of all Bennigan'ses in the country were franchises, and thus, were not affected by the company's bankruptcy. All franchise Bennigan's locations remain open! This does me no good, because there aren't any Bennigan's locations around here (ironically, there used to be one, but I think it closed sometime last year just for sucking). And if there were, I wouldn't know, because the Bennigan's website is now a dead link. But maybe you, dear reader, out there in some other state (or any of its international locations)-- you may have a Bennigan's near you that is still in operation. Go there and choke down some of their disgusting low-grade meat. Celebrate the rogue slophouse that will not die.

Wait a minute. Steak and Ale. I REMEMBER THAT PLACE. I definitely went there once when my brother and I were in elementary school. The walls were stone, like a castle. Man, that brings back memories. And now it's gone forever?!

R.I.P. Steak and Ale (1966-2008)

Cheers,
Diego

1 comment:

vbmbnrwe said...

Interesting fact: Justin and I knew of eachother in middle school because we both went to Bair Middle, but he was a year ahead of me, so we weren't friends. We met on the set of Aaron Brownlee's chasing Amy in college, and got to talking about all people we both knew and all the things we had in common. One of those things being that we were both at BENNIGANS for a "Die like a man" outdoor parking lot concert earlier that year.

RIP Bennigans. (And Steak and Ale ((which was always better than Bennigans))