Logan’s Roadhouse fires furloughed employees, terminates health insurance amid pandemic
Logan’s Roadhouse, a steakhouse chain that started in Lexington, has fired all of its furloughed employees and terminated their health care benefits.
The chain’s parent company, Tennessee-based CraftWorks Holdings, has been in bankruptcy since early March.
In mid-March, CraftWorks “mothballed” all 261 of its restaurants, including the Logan’s Roadhouse and Old Chicago franchises.
Employees were furloughed but the company said that they hoped to restart operations if they could find a new lender.
Then on April 1, the bankruptcy court supervisors fired the company’s CEO and CFO for paying $7 million in state sales taxes without the approval of the court, according to a filing.
Now nearly 18,000 employees have been laid off and their health insurance coverage has been terminated, without access to short-term COBRA coverage during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to bankruptcy court filings.
According published reports, the chain hopes to restart once the COVID-19 crisis has subsided and reopen previously profitable restaurants. But about half of the restaurants probably are closed for good, the company admitted.
The original Logan’s Roadhouse on South Broadway closed in August 2017 and was demolished about a year later. The chain had two locations in Lexington, one on Rojay Drive near Fayette Mall and another on Pavilion Way at the Hamburg shopping center.
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 3:36 PM.
