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A little over a year and a half ago, the Columbus-founded Max & Erma’s was purchased by an investment company based in Pittsburgh. Today, that company has filed for bankruptcy. It sounds as if there are no immediate plans for restaurant closures, so fans of the original location in German Village can breathe a sigh of relief. Business First has more information on the story here.
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- Eliza Ho: Looking forward to try both TILL and Glaze! This interview educates my sens
- James: We went tonight for Valentines. It was absolutely sublime. The house wine,
- howatzer: When's happy hour?
- Down the Lane: @mbeaumont,@SJT, @Mercurius, @drew thanks for all the love and support! @J
- SJT: We had our employee xmas party here and the service and food were excellent
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Max & Erma’s Owner Files for Bankruptcy
By: Walker
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Not my favorite place to eat, but it’s consistently good and they do quite a bit to support my kids’ school. I’d hate to lose them. My prescription, as always for struggling restaurants – > cheap happy hour drinks.
That’s a shame. I rarely went, but Max and Erma’s had been doing things lately to distinguish themselves from the TGI Fridays/Applebee’s clone set.
M&E started as a fantastic, locally owned chain. Their stock made a good deal of money for those involved in the original IPO (myself included), and it was sad to see them change hands in the first place, let alone this.
I guess it shouldn’t surprise me; another poorly managed restaurant. I can’t believe they charge so much but don’t pay their bills or taxes.
We stopped going when they cancelled our favorite menu items a few years back. And the prices are/were pretty high too.
Their German Village store is a neighborhood institution, it’s really too bad for that location and all their staff at all the restaurants. Big job loss especially in Central Ohio.
cheese skewers will always remind me of the first thing I ate that screamed to me “I could eat this every single day till I die”.
Granted, I was like 13…but still.
Agreed! I loved those when I was a kid. Now, I love the Tortilla Soup. The one by the convention center is usually crowded during the lunch rush, but I wonder how busy it is at other times.
Will there be? It’s my understanding chapter 11 is the reorganization bankruptcy (unlike chapter 7 which is liquidation bankruptcy)
My guess is that almost everyone will keep their jobs while they restructure their debt with National city. They’ve already sold off a good portion of their restaurants to franchiseees.
My guess they won’t fire many people or close any restaurants unless reorganization goes poorly.
In any event I hope not, my family has been dining at the third street one since it opened.
The only thing I read that related to closing stores was about leases in under performing units at the bottom. Is GV leased, or underperforming?
Oh, I dunno, I misspoke. I don’t know anything about the structure/ownership of any of the stores. Hopefully, all stores will remain open and staff gainfully employed. Sorry for any misinformation!
I would miss their buffalo chicken sandwich. It’s my favorite by far.
I remember when they opened the location off of Livingston Ave. It was an awesome place to go as a kid. Huge drinks, sundae bar (in a bathtub), a great game room full of pinball machines, and those cool ass rotary phones you could use to call other tables with.
I might see that as cheesy now, but as a kid. The best.
They lost me when they toned down and went “corporate.” The food and atmosphere just seemed to get more and more generic.
Playing Excitebike at the Brice Road M&E is what hooked me like crack and made me pester my parents to death for a Nintendo (with Excitebike of course.)
my first experience of guacamole on a burger was at Max and Erma’s…many many moons ago…
Word is that all the restaurants are staying open. It’ll be an internal reorganization. You will not lose your yum.
Seems like a lot of eateries loose their focus when they try to grow to fast/get bought/get greedy/forget their roots. I remember Lums (show my age?)had great food, then suddenly raised prices/cut portions and went from lines out the door to half empty (duh). Wendys can’t seem to keep their eye on the ball of their basics that people come to them for, although it wouldn’t seem to be rocket science to come up with a breakfast, fercrissake. We used to look forward to M&E’s sesame wings along with their best-in-town burgers, then all of a sudden they were gone. Waiter said they had a lot of complaints, but mgt knows best?! Same with Bob Evans catfish. That sent us miles further to Crackerbarrel. The U.S. auto industry has nothing on the restaurant industry.
Ditto that.
Haven’t been there in ages, but the Laredo Grill was my old standby (and yeah, the Buffalo chicken sammich was damn good too).
Yes M&E does a mean Buffalo Chicken.
I kinda stopped going when the ditched the meatloaf and mashed taters covered with onion straws. That was the main reason we went there it was good stuff and then one day it was gone!