Madison Street Perkins troubled chain’s fourth Winnipeg location to close doors
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/08/2019 (2284 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
People hunting for a mid-morning feast at Perkins Restaurant on Madison Street Tuesday walked away bewildered when they could not enter the establishment.
The doors were locked during the restaurant’s usual hours of operation, and there was no signage indicating why.
It’s the fourth Winnipeg Perkins location to close — with no warning — since last fall.
The Free Press obtained an email that owner Chris Mandersheid sent to employees at 7:30 p.m. Monday, saying the restaurant was closing that night.
“Over the course of the last four weeks, there have been changes in the entire company,” it reads. “We have been working on selling off units to keep them open…. Unfortunately, Madison did not make the cut.”
In the email, Mandersheid cited the restaurant’s financial issues as the reason for the closure, and said he passed along names of employees that “really stood out” to other restaurants.
Mandersheid, who is based in Calgary and was once president of Smitty’s Canada, did not respond to requests for comment.
Jeff Appelt, president of Gemstone Properties Inc., property owner of the Madison Street Perkins, said he was surprised the closure had happened already, but was not “completely blindsided.”
Appelt said there had been signs that the restaurant wasn’t doing well, but declined to go into specifics.
It appears people who dealt with the business were not notified of the closure.
Hans Schweitzer, who sells and leases kitchen knives to restaurants, was attempting to deliver a package to Perkins at about 10:30 Tuesday, but there was no answer.
“It’s a shame,” he said, heading back to his car. “I liked it. They were friendly and had good service.”
On Monday, parent company Perkins & Marie Callender’s, LLC announced that it is trying to sell the company and has begun bankruptcy proceedings. As a result, the company shut down 10 underperforming Perkins locations.
A company spokeswoman said Tuesday that the Madison Street restaurant is a franchised location, so its closure is unrelated to the others.
Last fall, Perkins locations on Kenaston Boulevard and Fermor Avenue closed. Then, last month, the Henderson Highway restaurant closed its doors. Restaurants on McPhillips Street and Portage and Regent avenues are still operating.
nicholas.frew@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @n_frew