Perkins restaurants in Rochester, Buffalo to close Sunday

Rochester Business Journal Staff//May 14, 2012//

Listen to this article

The Perkins Restaurant & Bakery locations in Rochester and Buffalo are slated to close on Sunday, the co-owner and operator said Monday evening.

Philip Gelsomino II, CEO of the Restaurant Group LLC, co-owner and operator of the Perkins Restaurant & Bakeries in Rochester and Buffalo NY, said the franchisor, Perkins & Marie Callender’s LLC, has terminated the license agreements for the franchise to operate under the name Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and has ordered them to close all their restaurants.

The move forces them out of business, Gelsomino said. Locations in Erie, Monroe and Niagara counties will all close at the end of the day on Sunday.

“We were stunned at the franchisor’s decision to put us out of business after 12 years of operations. We had paid them over $7.5 million in fees, stuck with them through good times and bad times – and what did they do? They put the brand into bankruptcy! It was just unbelievable,” Gelsomino said in a statement.

Perkins & Marie Callender’s filed Chapter 11 in June 2011 and emerged from bankruptcy on November 30. The brand was bought out of Chapter 11 by an investment group, Wayzata Investment Partners LLC. A new CEO, Jeffrey Warne, took over at Memphis-based Perkins & Marie Callender’s last month.

The restaurants on Chili Avenue in Gates and Jefferson Road Henrietta closed earlier this year, but locations in Greece and Penfield stayed open.

Gelsomino said their franchise restaurants served more than 13 million guests since the first location in Henrietta, opened in 2001.

Perkins & Marie Callender’s officials were not immediately available to comment.