Restaurant chain Bennigan's has had to lay off or furlough up to 70 percent of its staff because of the coronavirus crisis, and Paul Mangiamele, Bennigan's chairman and CEO, told Cheddar Thursday that the decision was 'heartbreaking.'
"We've been around 44 years now… we've been hit hard," Mangiamele said. "In fact, we got sucker punched."
Bennigan's has kept necessary cooking staff and other positions so the casual dining chain can pivot operations amid stay-at-home orders around the country.
"The spirit and the iconic nature of our brand has created this ingenious way of operating now," Mangiamele said. "We're a grocery store, we're doing adult cocktails, we're doing carry-out and delivery."
During the Great Recession, Bennigan's had to file for bankruptcy and close all 150 of its corporate-owned restaurants. Its count of 138 franchises dwindled down to the 15 U.S. locations remaining today.
Mangiamele, along with his wife, purchased the chain in 2015.
"We're a resilient species. We're a resilient brand," Mangiamele said. "If we can come through a Chapter 7 [bankruptcy], we're certainly going to come through this pandemic."
Sam Bankman-Fried co-founded the FTX crypto exchange in 2019 and quickly built it into the world’s second most popular place to trade digital currency. It collapsed almost as quickly — by the fall of 2022, it was bankrupt.
The economic effects of the Baltimore bridge collapse, Americans are living longer but not better, and Gen Z and millennials are struggling to afford rent, let alone a mortgage.
Zainab Salbi, founder of Women for Women International and co-founder of Daughters for Earth, shares why she is putting women in positions of power to fight the climate crisis.
The federal tax collector said Monday that roughly 940,000 people in the U.S. have until May 17 to submit tax returns for unclaimed refunds for tax year 2020, which total more than $1 billion nationwide.
Allies of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney have reached a settlement agreement in a state court fight over how Walt Disney World is developed in the future.
