Beloved Italian restaurant chain abruptly shuts 30% of its locations
A family-favorite restaurant has closed a group of stores after filing its third bankruptcy in five years.
Bertucci's, the Massachusetts-based Italian restaurant chain known for its brick oven pizzas and family-friendly atmosphere, has closed nearly a third of its stores across the state.
The company recently shut down four locations — in Braintree, Mansfield, North Andover, and Norwood — according to updates on its website, dwindling its state-wide headcount from 14 to 10.
It just won the People's Choice Award at the 2024 Boston Pizza Festival. But several restaurants encountered financial stress after the company took home the prize.
'Thank you for your loyalty and support all these years,' a notice hanging outside of the restaurant's former Braintree location says, and pointed diners toward still-operating locations in Hingham and West Roxbury.
The closures mark another chapter in a turbulent stretch for Bertucci's, which has now filed for bankruptcy three times in just five years.
Bertucci's first entered bankruptcy in 2018, slashing its footprint in half from 56 restaurants down to 28.
A second filing came in 2022, after pandemic supply chain disruptions squeezed operations.
This year, Bertucci's filed for bankruptcy a third time. Just fifteen locations remain, with a smattering of restaurants in Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
This isn't the end for the chain. It opened a fast-casual offshoot of the famous pizza shop called Bertucci's Pronto in Boston earlier this month.
'The Bertucci's you know and love is here to stay as well, just with a few less locations for now,' the company said.
In its bankruptcy filing, the company pinned the health of its business on the success of the new platform. It also said remaining stores remain profitable.
But for the closing locations, the restaurant chain cited rising costs, lower consumer confidence, and a tougher economy for its latest collapse.
'On April 24, 2025, Bertucci's filed bankruptcy with the goal of promptly reorganizing its business for a sustainable and successful future,' the company wrote in the filing.
'Consistent with numerous other recent restaurant brand bankruptcies, consumer demand has shifted away from legacy casual-dining brands.'
Bertucci's bankruptcy tracks closely with a broader shakeout in the sector.
Multiple casual dining brands — including Red Lobster, Hooters, TGI Fridays, On The Border, and Roti — have all filed for bankruptcy in the past year.
Meanwhile, other restaurant staples, like Denny's, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse, and Cracker Barrel have all reported shrinking sales estimates at the start of 2025.
Chains are facing two main issues: their costs to operate keep increasing, while inflation-stressed middle-income consumers are cutting back on restaurant spending.
To confront the financial strain, multiple chains have rolled out fast-casual spinoffs of their menus.
Golden Corral and Perkins both launched scaled back versions of their restaurants to entice value-seeking diners.
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