Tucson's only Marie Callender's restaurant, on Wilmot Road near East Broadway, closed abruptly Sunday. The restaurant, famed for its pies, had been there for decades.
The restaurant chain's Memphis, Tenn.-based parent company, Perkins & Marie Callender's Inc., announced Monday that it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It cited the weak economic climate, particularly in Florida, Nevada and California, where many of its restaurants are.
As a result, 58 Marie Callender's or Perkins restaurants across the country closed over the weekend. Marie Callender's' website showed no locations in Arizona as of Monday. There had been four in the Phoenix area in addition to the Tucson restaurant.
In a news release Monday, CEO Jay Trungale described the company's action as an "initial round of store closings" and said the restaurants that were shut down were underperforming.
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Documents filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware indicated the company could not afford to build new restaurants and upgrade existing ones, so it lost traffic to better-funded restaurant competitors.
A Marie Callender's near Tucson Mall closed previously.
