O’Charley’s closes another Chattanooga restaurant
O’Charley’s has closed its second Chattanooga restaurant in as many years as the Nashville-based restaurant chain continues to reduce the number of its bar-and-grill eateries.
O’Charley’s, which closed its restaurant on Hixson Pike near Northgate Mall last year, shut down its restaurant on Shallowford Village Drive last week. The O’Charley’s in nearby Dalton, Georgia, closed in 2019.
In a statement to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, O’Charley’s CEO W. Craig Barber cited business conditions.
“It is always a difficult decision to close a store, but based on a variety of industry challenges and the macro-economic environment over the last few years, we closed this O’Charley’s location as of June 11,” Barber said in an emailed statement Sunday night. “We sincerely appreciate our loyal guests who have visited us at this location while also being deeply grateful for the outstanding work of our operating team.”
The only remaining O’Charley’s restaurant in metropolitan Chattanooga is in Fort Oglethorpe, which is one of 16 O’Charley’s eateries in Georgia. The restaurant chain also operates an O’Charley’s in Cleveland, Tennessee, which is one of 23 remaining O’Charley’s restaurants in the Volunteer State.
O’Charley’s started in Nashville in 1971 and grew to more than 360 restaurants. Of those, 120 remain open across 17 Southern and Midwestern states.
O’Charley’s and other bar-and-grill restaurant chains grew in the 1970s and ’80s, including Applebee’s, Bennigan’s and Ruby Tuesday.
“A lot of these concepts have been around a long time,” Janet Lowder, president of the consulting firm Restaurant Management Services, told the Los Angeles Times. “They really need to update. It’s a segment of the industry that needs to have some new strategies.”
According to the trade publication Restaurant Business, the chain barand-grill concept is the sector of the restaurant industry that’s struggling the most in many markets as many consumers have shifted from the chains to either independent restaurants or more specialty dining concepts.
The Shallowford Village restaurant was built in 1993. The 7,806-squarefoot building was sold in 2004 for more than $2.9 million, according to Hamilton County property records. The 7,901-square-foot restaurant site on Hixson Pike was built in 1981 and is now being listed for sale at $1.7 million by Herman Walldorf Commercial Real Estate.
O’Charley’s was part of the parent company O’Charley’s Inc. Enterprise, a multiconcept restaurant company that operated or franchised 363 restaurants under three brands: O’Charley’s, Ninety Nine Restaurant and Stoney River Legendary Steaks. In 2012, O’Charley’s Inc. Enterprise was acquired by Fidelity National Financial and became part of American Blue Ribbon Holdings.