The parent company of Regina Pizzeria, the brick-oven pizza joint that became an icon of Boston’s Italian-dominated North End when it opened in 1926 and later expanded to other locations, filed for bankruptcy in federal court Wednesday.
Luckily for the busloads of tourists and generations of locals who frequent the North End Regina, the flagship restaurant and most of the chain’s 18 other Boston-area locations should remain open.
A spokesman for Woburn-based Boston Restaurant Associates Inc., said the company entered bankruptcy in order to get out of several long and expensive leases it had signed at outlying malls that had diminishing foot traffic in their food courts.
Four low-performing Regina Pizzeria takeout restaurants — at the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleboro, the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, N.H., the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, N.H., and the Arsenal Mall in Watertown — shut down Wednesday and will not reopen, the spokesman said.
“The company is quite strong, but these particular stores have become problematic,” said Stuart Thompson of East Coast Associates, a marketing and public relations firm that represents Boston Restaurant Associates. “There are no major financial problems at all. They’ll be immediately profitable once they get these stores off their books.”
The leases at each of the four shuttered locations run into 2021 and cost between $7,700 and $20,500 a month, according to the filing. The closings cost about 30 employees their jobs, Thompson said.
According to the bankruptcy filing, the company also wants to renegotiate leases at three of its other food court restaurants where business has declined: the Independence Mall in Plymouth, the Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, and the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough.
In addition to 17 Regina Pizzerias, Boston Restaurant Associates owns two Polcari’s Italian Restaurant locations in Saugus and Woburn that also should not be affected by the bankruptcy filing.
Documents indicate Boston Restaurant Associates’s board of directors voted in late April to authorize the bankruptcy filing. The company, which employes approximately 490 people, reported between $1 and $10 million in both assets and debts.
Regina Pizzeria got its start in the North End in 1926, but later opened other locations in New England. The chain is famous for its brick-oven pizza, vintage decor, and napkins printed with the story of the company’s long history.
Regina Pizzeria has positioned itself as a so-called fast-casual chain, with high quality food and quick service. It faces increased competition from hip, high-end pizza restaurants — and potentially from Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, a similarly storied chain that plans to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this fall.
The Regina Pizzeria locations in Allston and at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut are operated by other companies that license the Regina name, and are not expected to be affected by the bankruptcy.
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Tagged: pizza, Pizzaria Regina
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