STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — If you’re a fan of Aussie-style steaks and the deep-fried Bloomin’ Onion, it will soon be a little harder to get your fix: Several Outback Steakhouse locations are slated to close for good, the company has noted, along with other underperforming brands like Carrabba’s, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar.
“Closing restaurants is never easy,” a spokesperson for Outback’s parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, recently said in a statement to CNN. “This was a business decision that has no reflection on the staff or their service. Many team members will have the opportunity to transfer to open positions at another restaurant. Employees who do not will receive severance.”
The company, which owns more than 1,400 restaurants worldwide — including one in New Springville — released the news during an earnings call on Friday, announcing that a total of 41 of its restaurants will close. The closures will reportedly hit Outback Steakhouses the hardest, the company said during the call, blaming slowing sales and shrinking customer traffic for the loss. Plus, a “majority of these restaurants were older assets with leases from the ‘90s and early 2000s,” according to Bloomin’ CEO David Deno.
The company didn’t release a list of closed restaurants, but reports from local news sites across the country showed that Outback locations in Pennsylvania and Iowa have already shuttered and the brand has already left Hawaii entirely. Bonefish Grill locations in New Jersey and Virginia have also closed, CNN reported, plus at least three Carrabba’s locations in New York.
Of the 41 closures across the brands, 33 restaurants were closed Friday, a Bloomin’ spokesperson told Nation’s Restaurants News. The Staten Island Outback is still currently open.
But Outback said it plans to open as many as 18 new restaurants in the United States this year, each with a redesigned layout, adding to the 700 that remained open. And in…
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