14 Bonefish Grill seafood restaurants to close by 2019

By Madelyn Kearns, Associate Editor

Published on Thursday, February 18, 2016

    

Bloomin’ Brands, owner of the U.S.-based seafood restaurant chain Bonefish Grill, will be closing 14 Bonefish Grill locations as a part of the company’s newly announced revitalization plan.

Elizabeth Watts, director of media and community relations for Bloomin’ Brands, said her company was not yet prepared to announce which restaurants will close.

“Closing a restaurant is never easy. Out of respect for our employees and being able to share information with them first, we are not releasing a list,” Watts said in a release.

Watts did note in The Tampa Tribune that the restaurants in question were all “underperforming.”

“We expect the majority of these restaurants to close in 2016," the Bloomin’ Brands latest financial report said. Sales for company-owned Bonefish Grill locations were down by 5.4 percent during the 13-week period ending on 27 December, according to the report, and the company incurred pre-tax asset charges of USD 24.2 million (EUR 21.8 million) during the 13 weeks ending 17 December 2015 in connection with the closures.

There are 210 Bonefish Grill locations in the United States, including nine storefronts that opened in 2015. Bonefish Grill won a 2016 Consumers’ Choice Award and was deemed a “Pillar of Excellence” with respect to its food quality. Popular dishes for the restaurant chain include bang bang shrimp, Chilean sea bass and the sirloin and crab cake dinner.