Ouch! Roadhouse Grill employees show up to chained doors!

http://www.wptv.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=bfcde35e-aa64-40ba-bb8d-e2889932841e

Fair Use Act Quotation

There are plenty of ways to be fired, but showing up, seeing chains on the doors and wondering if you're going to get paid, has got to take the steak.

"No warning at all. Just shut the doors, lock it up, fend for yourself," says former Roadhouse Grill employee Patrick Kip.

Hundreds of Roadhouse Grill employees across the nation showed up Wednesday ready for work.

The steak restaurant had been in Chapter Eleven bankruptcy, but Tuesday moved into Chapter Seven.

A judge ordered 20 restaurants in four states closed down, some even had their doors chained shut.

"You just show up today or last night?" asks Holmes.

"This morning. Seven-thirty this morning to open my building and there was a chain with a notice 'We're closed,'" says Delray Beach manager Wayne Decamp.

"And you're the manager of that store?" asks Holmes.

"Yes," he says.

"And that's how you found out?"

"Yes."

In the middle of the night, district managers drove from Roadhouse Grill to Roadhouse Grill, locking up.

When employees showed up Wednesday morning, they found out they'd wasted their gas.

"You just don't let people come to work and there's nothing here for them," says former employee Jerry Broome.

Some employees at the Roadhouse Grill in Lake Worth actually helped clear out another restaurant in Delray Beach.

It's only when they came back to work in Lake Worth, they learned they too were out of a job.

"We thought this one would still be open, but they just close it down on us," says Patrick Kip.

Now, all these employees want to know is when they'll get paid.

Payday was supposed to be Tuesday, but at the last minute it was moved to Thursday.

Another low blow say workers.

"Now we get no pay and the doors are locked. I got child support to pay, I'm on the inmate release program, we have to pay the state. Now we got nothing to give nobody," says Mike Mattino.

We reached Roadhouse Grill Chief Financial Officer Jan Ickovic by phone Wednesday. He told us, "I have no idea when employees will be getting paid, it's up to the trustee. We did our best, it was taken out of our hands by the courts."

We were unable to reach the trustee, Robert Furr, by phone.

Roadhouse Grill employeed roughly 28-hundred people in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, New York and Ohio.

Franchise locations in Sebring, Ocala and Winter Park will remain open.

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That's a major ouch! And plainly rotten, they should of gotten paid!

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/c...oadhouse_0517.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=6

Fair Use Act Quotation
Roadhouse shut down with stability around corner

By LORI BECKER

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 16, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — With the swing of a gavel Tuesday, Roadhouse Grill was gone.

The restaurant doors were chained shut without notice. Employees were left without final paychecks. Assets were abandoned.

It was not how John Metz wanted the deal to go down.

The West Palm Beach turnaround man who bought the beleaguered steakhouse chain last fall was reportedly just two weeks away from a sale that could have paid the rent and kept an estimated 2,000 workers on the payroll.

But lawyers on the case said tighter bankruptcy deadlines and increasingly impatient landlords turned Roadhouse into roadkill.

When a loan to cover unpaid rents fell through, Roadhouse was forced this week to shut down its restaurants and liquidate its assets, Craig Kelley, Roadhouse's West Palm Beach attorney, said Friday.

A few more days could have changed the story.

The fine print of a 3-year-old change in bankruptcy law gave Roadhouse until May 5 - 210 days after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October - to agree to pay $1.25 million in unpaid rents, Kelley said.

Landlords in six states, including Florida, weren't budging. A U.S. bankruptcy judge gave the company until May 9 to fork over the cash.

With that deadline looming, Kelley said a big-money buyer, a publicly traded company he declined to name, was circling, willing to pay an estimated $4 million for the steakhouse.

But now? It's worth zip. Not even the restaurants' equipment and furnishings are valuable enough to auction off.

"The landlords are not going to get paid. They'll get their properties back, but they won't be paid," Kelley said.

Tampa investor MCF Development LLC was going to lend Metz the $1.25 million, but the two couldn't agree on terms in time. The money was waiting in escrow when the judge said time was up, Kelley said.

Without the cash, Roadhouse had to give up the leases and convert to Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Roadhouse's 21 remaining locations, including restaurants in Delray Beach and Greenacres, were closed overnight after the ruling Tuesday. Employees showed up Wednesday morning to find chains on the doors.

"We had no choice but to close it down immediately," Kelley said. "We had to chain the doors, because if steaks and bottles of booze started walking out the door, Roadhouse's principals would be personally liable."

Boca Raton trustee Robert Furr was appointed to liquidate the company's assets. On Friday, he said he would have to abandon the equipment and furniture left at the 21 restaurants. Auctioneers said they could have brought about $20,000 at each location, but it would have cost more than that to set up the sale, Furr said.

Remaining assets amount to little more than $75,000 in cash, Furr said. That means that it is unlikely the out-of-work employees will ever get their final paychecks.

He also pointed to the bankruptcy law changes Congress made three years ago that shortened the time debtors had to pay landlords. "It's difficult to put something together in 210 days," he said. "Everybody loses in this case."

Metz bought Roadhouse last fall from Palm Beach Gardens-based Duffy's Sports Grill. Duffy's had bought the chain, then based in Pompano Beach, in May 2007 with plans to sell half the locations and convert the rest to Duffy's.

"It was a financial disaster," Duffy's owner Paul Emmett said. "We're not surprised it went under."

But Metz, who specializes in rebuilding struggling companies, wanted to see Roadhouse through its problems. He shut down about half of the 54 stores, retrained employees and spruced up the restaurants.

Just before the liquidation this week, Roadhouse was breaking even, Kelley said.

"That's how close they were," he said.

I'll bet the CFO, CEO, and the other execs walked away with a pocketful of cash. They're not hurting, and they could care less about the employees, I'm sure. As long as they got their pile of cash before it went under...

sounds like the judge is at fault

and that the bankers had gotten a hold on fixin the mess if they had been given just a few more days the twothousandeighthundred employees would still be working!!

Didnt realize Florida judges were economists!!

(* as well as merchants of death such as the Florida Teri Shiavo judge)

Is this the Texas Roadhouse or is it just called Roadhouse?

Glowy SC said:

Is this the Texas Roadhouse or is it just called Roadhouse?

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ofuzzy1 said:

http://www.wptv.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=bfcde35e-aa64-40ba-bb8d-e2889932841e

Fair Use Act Quotation

There are plenty of ways to be fired, but showing up, seeing chains on the doors and wondering if you're going to get paid, has got to take the steak.

"No warning at all. Just shut the doors, lock it up, fend for yourself," says former Roadhouse Grill employee Patrick Kip.

Hundreds of Roadhouse Grill employees across the nation showed up Wednesday ready for work.

The steak restaurant had been in Chapter Eleven bankruptcy, but Tuesday moved into Chapter Seven.

A judge ordered 20 restaurants in four states closed down, some even had their doors chained shut.

"You just show up today or last night?" asks Holmes.

"This morning. Seven-thirty this morning to open my building and there was a chain with a notice 'We're closed,'" says Delray Beach manager Wayne Decamp.

"And you're the manager of that store?" asks Holmes.

"Yes," he says.

"And that's how you found out?"

"Yes."

In the middle of the night, district managers drove from Roadhouse Grill to Roadhouse Grill, locking up.

When employees showed up Wednesday morning, they found out they'd wasted their gas.

"You just don't let people come to work and there's nothing here for them," says former employee Jerry Broome.

Some employees at the Roadhouse Grill in Lake Worth actually helped clear out another restaurant in Delray Beach.

It's only when they came back to work in Lake Worth, they learned they too were out of a job.

"We thought this one would still be open, but they just close it down on us," says Patrick Kip.

Now, all these employees want to know is when they'll get paid.

Payday was supposed to be Tuesday, but at the last minute it was moved to Thursday.

Another low blow say workers.

"Now we get no pay and the doors are locked. I got child support to pay, I'm on the inmate release program, we have to pay the state. Now we got nothing to give nobody," says Mike Mattino.

We reached Roadhouse Grill Chief Financial Officer Jan Ickovic by phone Wednesday. He told us, "I have no idea when employees will be getting paid, it's up to the trustee. We did our best, it was taken out of our hands by the courts."

We were unable to reach the trustee, Robert Furr, by phone.

Roadhouse Grill employeed roughly 28-hundred people in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, New York and Ohio.

Franchise locations in Sebring, Ocala and Winter Park will remain open.

-----------------

That's a major ouch! And plainly rotten, they should of gotten paid!

Click to expand...

That has to be about the most blatant case of chickenshittedness I've seen in a long while. What would it have hurt to have informed the store managers, who in turn, could have called their employees to tell them to stay home? Don't give me that about "well it's to prevent stealing or confrontation" on the part of the PEONS, because if they'd really used their head they could have notified the local police and explained what was about to happen if they were that worried. The district managers surely knew THEY were instantly out of a job, too, so I don't buy the old, "just following orders" bit, either.

We don't eat out but if we did, I'd want to know where these asshats landed their next job so I'd be sure and boycott their place just on general principle.

What ever happened to common decency? (rhetorical question)

OMFG...

Let the Teri Schiavo thing go already...she was a vegetable. The judge didn't kill her...A series of tragic events did.

Now if you want to talk about bad judges...let look at those who made rulings that gave that state to GWB.

Hey, Big Sarge, just couldn't let that comment go unaddressed. Whether she was a vegetable or not is a moot point. Terri Schiavo was starved to death by order of the court. The legal system enforced a no food, no water ban on a living breathing human. Any one would die under those circumstances. Thus, ultimately, the courts did cause her death.

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

They didn't even tell the Manager of the store that it was closing! I can just imagine driving to work only to find the doors chained shut. A quick call home telling my partner DON'T GO TO THE GROCERY STORE! I'M OUT OF A JOB! That's underhanded, lowdown and dirty. I guess they can collect the tiny UE checks till they run out, and once they do run out we can hear on the news how unemployment is down once again. Everytime I hear that I just think, yeah, someone's UE just ran out and they're not counted anymore. My prayers go out to all the families affected by this dirty deal.

thompson said:

Don't give me that about "well it's to prevent stealing or confrontation" on the part of the PEONS, because if they'd really used their head they could have notified the local police and explained what was about to happen if they were that worried.

What ever happened to common decency? (rhetorical question)

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That is pretty much what it is about. Let see, if the store is empty, I get in and steal all the copper piping, etc. etc.. The thing is that they would rather the employees throw a brick through a window in an act of anger than be able to sit at home stewing, then start thinking about what they could all rip-off. Trashing a store is nothing, stealing the copper piping, aluminum whatever, etc. would be much worse.

If you think this is bad, Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company here in Indy called up their stores in the middle of the week, while they were open, and told the managers to tell customers to get out, tell all employees they were out of a job, and then close the store. Some of dumb managers actually did tell customers to get out, in the middle of eating!! I think at least one manager felt bad and the employees decided to just close the store to new customers, but they finished serving the ones already eating.

The company never re-opened here, but they are on the web as Black Angus Steakhouse from what I can tell. They are now located out on the west coast.

As the US economy deteriorates, we'll see a lot more of this...

This happened to me in 198...3?

I worked as a cashier in a very elegant restaurant in California, a second job at night. (I worked in a bank during the day.) We got there one night and it was simply locked up. No notice, not even a sign. I don't think we got final paychecks, either.

I didn't qualify for unemployment because it was a second job (and it was seasonal--not open during the summer)--but I DID need it to make ends meet, since I was single and had some medical bills to pay. I don't know if anyone else qualified...but another restaurant scooped up many of the employees (including me) for the next season.

[FONT=Verdana,Arial] If you think this is bad, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]here in Indy[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial] called up their stores in the middle of the week, while they were open, and told the managers to tell customers to get out, tell all employees they were out of a job, and then close the store. Some of dumb managers actually did tell customers to get out, in the middle of eating!! [/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]I think at least one manager felt bad and the employees decided to just close the store to new customers, but they finished serving the ones already eating.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana,Arial]

The company never re-opened here, but they are on the web as Black Angus Steakhouse from what I can tell. They are now located out on the west coast.[/FONT]

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Thanks for the info, Ravekid.

I don't care if they have the best beef in the world, I'm not going to knowingly spend my money with jerks. I'm odd that way.

The same parent company owns a steakhouse chain called "Smokey Bones," and did the exact same "shutter the place without telling the first person working there" closure stunt to the Smokey Bones restaurant in my area. Employees showed up on a Saturday morning and the place was boarded up with sign on the door. Not even the managers knew in advance. No warning, no severance, last checks were reportedly pencilwhipped into near oblivion and mailed a few weeks later.

I heard a couple weeks ago from the manager at the Logan's (another steakhouse) next door to the aforementioned Smokey Bones, and he reported that the owners of the S.B. chain had acquired Roadhouse as well, and we semi-joked that employees would show up there to see the aftermath of the same overnight-shutdown stunt as the S.B. employees. Apparently we were right.

Sadly I bet at least a couple folks displaced from S.B. just got canned from Roadhouse...

oO