Thursday, August 17, 2017

Got Crabs? Joe's Crab Shack Shutters Over 40 Locations, Including Duluth Restaurant

In recent weeks, Ignite Restaurant Group has shuttered more than 40 locations across the country in wake of its June Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.  The company, owner of the Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tap + Tavern concepts, was won August 7th by Landry’s Inc., (which like Ignite, is based in Houston, Texas) in a bankruptcy auction.
Landry’s founder, Chairman, and CEO Tilman Fertitta originally bought Joe’s Crab Shack in 1994, then a single restaurant.  In 2006, he sold the brand, along with 120 locations, to private-equity firm J.H Whitney & Co., which went public in 2009 and assumed the Ignite Restaurant Group name. 

Landry’s owns nearly 50 restaurant brands including Rainforest Cafe, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., McCormick and Schmick’s and Morton’s.  The firm also operates a number of casinos and hotels. 

As of April 3, in its last public report before the company's stock was delisted, Ignite reported 112 Joe’s Crab Shack restaurants and 25 Brick House units in 32 states.

The Joe's Crab Shack website indicates that there are currently 72 restaurants open across 24 states.  

In an August 8 interview with trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN), Fetitta indicated that “We’ll probably end up with about 60 units.” 

Ignite has also closed a couple of Brick House locations, shrinking the chain to 23 units, none in Georgia. The same NRN article indicated Fertitta intends to sell the Brick House concept once the acquisition of Ignite closes.  

In Atlanta, Joe's abruptly shuttered its Duluth location at 1590 Pleasant Hill Road.  Other Joe's Crab Shack locations in Georgia remain open at 1965 Mount Zion Road in Morrow,  2501 Cobb Place Boulevard in Kennesaw, and 504 E. River Street in Savannah.   

In years past, the chain has closed at least five other Atlanta restaurants including those at 10800 Haynes Bridge Road in Alpharetta, 3013 Peachtree Road in Buckhead, 2175 Cobb Parkway in Marietta, 4300 Stone Mountain Highway in Lilburn, and most recently, 2868 Chapel Hill Road in Douglasville this past fall. 

The Alpharetta location had most recently operated as Spice Brick Oven Pizza, but the pizza restaurant recently closed.  The Buckhead location was demolished nearly a decade ago, and today its property is part of The Shops Buckhead Atlanta development.  The Lilburn location, which shuttered last year, remains vacant but its property is reportedly seeing interest from developers.  The Marietta location has been demolished and is reportedly vacant. My friend at The City Menus reports that the former Douglasville location will be demolished and replaced with a new Panera Bread.  

Are you surprised to see Joe's Crab Shack close so many locations?  What would you like to see open in place of the former Lilburn, Alpharetta and Duluth locations?  Where is your favorite "chain seafood" eatery?

Please share your thoughts below. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joe's is another concept that raised prices at the wrong time. They started focusing less on shrimp and more on crab and their steam buckets went up over $30. That's just too much for that type of place - even before the economy tanked. They never recovered. Then they decided to buy Macaroni Grill. Ouch.

Brickhouse is a "breastaurant" concept like Hooters, Twin Peaks or Tilted Kilt.

ImAndy said...

This is a great location for a bakery or Korean BBQ

Anonymous said...

Joe's tried the No Tipping model in many of its locations, raised prices, then customers ( and employees) left. They also took at huge hit last year when a "customer" claimed to have found an "offensive" placemat at their table and went public with their "outrage". The "racist" incident "victim" was a BLM member and the whole thing was faked. The power of fake news, hate labels, and fraud

Anonymous said...

CNN is fake news!

Gabe said...

Brickhouse is not a breastaurant they changed direction some time ago. Joe's and Mac Grill were the anchor that brought the company down.

Coolio said...

"They started focusing less on shrimp and more on crab"

OMG the HORROR of a place called Joe's CRAB Shack to focus on CRAB!

"The "racist" incident "victim" was a BLM member and the whole thing was faked. The power of fake news, hate labels, and fraud"

Everything is not political. If you have to equate politics to everything, it lets us all know that you don't have a brain. How about add something to the discussion instead of doing what so many others do and detract from it with useless commentary?

I do believe they raised prices not only at the wrong time, but PERIOD. Red Lobster raised their prices too but not by as much as Joe's. I quit going because of that. Their corn was excellent, and I liked the crab buckets. I sometimes would go there for lunch and that tab was under $30 for a bucket and a drink. But closing locations and raising prices just didn't do it for me.

Anonymous said...

Joes was nasty anyway just like Red lobster. Good seafood is in the urban areas and silverbay in stockbridge

Anonymous said...

"Everything is not political. If you have to equate politics to everything, it lets us all know that you don't have a brain. How about add something to the discussion instead of doing what so many others do and detract from it with useless commentary?"

Tyrone Williams and Chauntyll Allen made this Political when they faked that photo. If people would investigate and follow these so called Racist incidents from start to finish and stop believing the everything that is fed to you via the media. Joe's was damaged by this fake incident do to their largest customer demographic boycotting eating at their restaurants. Investigate and Educate yourselves - EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL.


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