BATON ROUGE La. Atalaya Capital Management LP, which has offices in New York and Atlanta, and CRG Partners, with offices in nine U.S. cities and Vienna, Austria, have taken over the management of the Bennigan's Grill & Bar franchise system in the wake of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings for court-supervised liquidation this week by S&A Restaurant Corp. and some affiliates, a franchisee here said.
Rick Pastorek, president of BOL Inc. of Baton Rouge, which owns six Bennigan's in Louisiana and one in Memphis, Tenn., said Atalaya and CRG have had conference calls with franchisees, leaving him optimistic about the brand's future.
Plano, Texas-based Metromedia Restaurant Group, owner of S&A, closed about 127 Bennigan's and 55 Steak and Ale units at the same time as the bankruptcy filings Tuesday. Pastorek said he believes 134 franchised Bennigan's continue operating, including 80 domestic and 54 international units.