Hoagie Chain Taylor Gourmet will close all its stores

Food

Sources say the meeting between owner Casey Patten and President Trump has hurt business

Taylor Gourmet will close its 17 stores in the DC region after Sunday, September 23. Friday is the last day for both Chicago stores. The closures come as Connecticut-based private equity firm KarpReilly, which injected Taylor Gourmet with a $ 5.6 million investment in 2015, has been pulled out of the company. Owner Casey Patten refused to comment, but a spokesman confirmed the news. KarpReilly representatives were not immediately available to comment.

Several sources close to the company tell Washington's that a bankruptcy filing in Chapter 7 is imminent. Nothing has yet been filed and a spokesman declined to comment on a possible bankruptcy.

How did we get here? The official line of Taylor Gourmet is that its rapid expansion may have been too much, too fast. Patten said at Washington Business Journal Last week, Taylor Gourmet stores were still profitable, but he was considering closing three sites. He has blamed rapid and casual world changes and heightened competition for rising real estate prices. He said the problem was that some stores had more square footage than needed.

However, three people familiar with the company said sales had started to decline after owner Patten met with the president. Donald Trump At a roundtable at the White House in January 2017. Patten told the press Washington Post that he is apolitical in matters of business and that he also participated in a round table with the president Barack Obama in 2012. The restaurant displayed a "Less Politics, More Hoagies" poster in its Chinatown boutique.

"Our sales dropped 40% the next day," said a source who requested anonymity. "And that persisted and never really improved."

A spokesman could not confirm this figure but says the meeting with Trump has "contributed" to a decline in sales. The spokesman said that the company had rebounded after the controversy and that it was not the cause of the disappearance of the chain.

According to some sources, Taylor Gourmet has developed too fast and ended up with failed places. An insider also suggests that the constant menu changes have upset the guests.

Since opening in 2008 on H Street, the Hoagie chain has expanded to 17 sites across DC, Virginia and Maryland, including the Reagan National Airport and the National Park. He made his debut in Chicago earlier this year. After KarpReilly's investment in 2015, it has almost doubled its number of stores.

Signs of financial stress have begun to be felt recently. The owner of Taylor Gourmet's downtown kitchen has sued the company twice in recent months. The Northwestern Development Company filed a deportation complaint in August, claiming more than $ 7,500 in rent and unpaid fees, but abandoned the case less than two weeks later. The owner filed a second lawsuit on September 8 for over $ 16,000 in unpaid rent and other fees.

The Taylor Gourmet management team was informed of the closures today. "If there are restaurateurs who will read that and who need some people, we have good," said the spokesman.