Dead and dying restaurant chains

[MATTROSE94]

Most of the restaurants on the list are extremely obscure and don’t exist in New Jersey anymore.

[beesley]

Disappointed that Ruby Tuesday is on the list. I've used their Arlington and Manhattan locations many a time.

[Skill and Chance]

It's reasonably likely that restaurants were in something of a bubble during 1999-2019 or so.  I would expect a long term decline in middlebrow restaurants in particular, with segmentation into fast food (which remains highly profitable, particularly without dining rooms) and very upscale table-service places that can raise prices arbitrarily high if necessary and still have plenty of customers. 

Casual table service dining will have to emulate fast food as much as possible to survive. 

[Lechasseur]

It's reasonably likely that restaurants were in something of a bubble during 1999-2019 or so.  I would expect a long term decline in middlebrow restaurants in particular, with segmentation into fast food (which remains highly profitable, particularly without dining rooms) and very upscale table-service places that can raise prices arbitrarily high if necessary and still have plenty of customers. 

Casual table service dining will have to emulate fast food as much as possible to survive. 

Yeah, people just can't afford to eat out the way they could in the 1990s-2000s anymore

[Tartarus Sauce]

Lol what dumb clickbait.

"Oh no! Subway has only 20,000 something locations left and Chipotle closed down 65 locations in the past year. They're on the brink of extinction!!!"

Give me a break.

[Schiff for Senate]

Souplantation (also known as Sweet Tomato) was a soup and salad buffet in Southern California and other regions that several of my friends and I enjoyed going to. It unfortunately went out of business like many buffets during the pandemic. I'm sceptical some of the chains listed here such as TGI Fridays, Cheesecake Factory, or Jack in the Box really are endangered however.

There was a Sweet Tomato near where I lived and I used to eat there a lot but it shut down, unfortunately. It was like a buffet where you could get refills of all kinds of things from pasta to chili to clam chowder to brownies.

[It’s so Joever]

Noodles and Company better hold on!

[jamestroll]

One thing that surprised me about Northern Virginia is the large amount of mom and pop restaurants in the area!

I really enjoy them and eat out once a week. I hope they survive this transition.

[Adam Griffin]

Is this article out of date? Some of these, like Old Country Buffet, are straight-up dead.

[Vosem]

Noodles and Company better hold on!

Does Noodles and Company have problems? I associate it with trendy yuppie customers, but that might be because the only one I'm familiar with, on High Street in Columbus OH, is in a very trendy yuppie area, and the one individual I know who's obsessed with it is a very trendy yuppie person.

[It’s so Joever]

Noodles and Company better hold on!

Does Noodles and Company have problems? I associate it with trendy yuppie customers, but that might be because the only one I'm familiar with, on High Street in Columbus OH, is in a very trendy yuppie area, and the one individual I know who's obsessed with it is a very trendy yuppie person.

I didn’t think they did but they are on the list.