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April 14, 2020

Uncertain future for Brio Tuscan Grille after parent company files for Ch. 11

Photo | Contributed Westfarms mall in Farmington.
By Sean Teehan

The head of a restaurant group that owns Brio Tuscan Grille said the company will try to re-open as many closed restaurants as possible amid the company's recent bankruptcy filing.

Brio Tuscan Grille has locations at the Westfarms Mall in Farmington and the Danbury Fair Mall in Danbury.

FoodFirst Global Restaurants Inc., a Florida-based company that owns the Brio and Bravo restaurant groups, file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Middle District of Florida federal bankruptcy court on Friday. FoodFirst had already closed 71 of its 92 restaurants on March 20, according to Nation's Restaurant News, a trade publication.

In an email, FoodFirst CEO Steve Layt did not confirm whether the Connecticut locations will close, but said the company wants to avoid permanent closures of the restaurants -- which are already stalled due to Covid-19 restrictions -- as much as it can.

"We will be attempting to re-open as many as possible when the current restrictions on restaurants are lifted," Layt said in an email.

In an April 10 bankruptcy filing, an attorney representing FoodFirst cited the pandemic as a major cause of financial woes for the company, which was already facing headwinds.

"FoodFirst’s difficult position prior to the Pandemic makes its current situation even more precarious," the filing said. "In order to save jobs and the viable Restaurants it will be necessary to pursue a company sale and an accompanying Management Services agreement."

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1 Comments

Anonymous
June 12, 2020

It's not rocket science. The management could not even keep the flow of supplies to the stores in the last November, with late trucks and missing items which the stores had to pick up somewhere else. And reading what the company is trying to do, pick up a buyer WITH an administrative agreement? Hell no! The administration was the problem! Buy it if you will, but kick the current leadership out. They don't do the job. Plain and simple as that. They would not be in financial trouble if they had.

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