The Associated Press
and the Cincinnati Enquirer

The Ground Round restaurant chain pioneered casual dining in the 1970s and '80s. But the casual way about 60 of the chain's 130 restaurants were abruptly shut down last week - including two in Greater Cincinnati - left thousands of workers not only jobless but angry.

"I've been with the company 11 years, and I felt like I got kicked in the teeth," said Bob Laudo, general manager of the Ground Round in Macedonia, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. "The way they left it left everybody pretty salty."

Laudo's was one of the company owned Ground Round restaurants nationwide that were preparing for a busy night last Friday when they got word via a conference call to kick out the customers, close the doors and stash the food in the freezer.

"I let them finish their meals. I couldn't do that to them," said Laudo, who after notifying the bewildered customers informed his 60 employees they were out of a job.

Braintree, Mass.-based American Hospitality Concepts owned about 60 of the 130 Ground Round restaurants in 25 states and Canada, employees said. The rest of the chain is a franchise operation that is independently owned and operated, and those restaurants remain open. But all those that were still owned and operated by the company appear to have been shuttered.

One of those company owned stores was at 7687 Mall Road in Florence, the other at 3550 Springdale Road in Bevis. No one answered the phones at either store this week. Calls to the company's national office also were not returned.

Several AHC executives did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Employees estimated that at least 4,000 people worked at the affected restaurants.

Ground Round employees said the conference call referenced problems with creditors but offered few details, and the executives hung up before taking questions. Laudo said that was particularly frustrating, since managers weren't told how to handle matters like customers questioning what would happen to their gift certificates.