Bonanza Franchisee Folds in Less Than 1 Year, Abandons 4 Locations
October 27, 2007 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
(FranchisePick.Com) Less than one year after purchasing four Bonanza franchise restaurants in MD and DE, Young Lee reportedly shuttered all four units without notice, leaving franchisor parent Metromedia Restaurant Group (MRG) stunned and an estimated 200 employees unemployed before the holidays.
October 24, 2007 DelMarva Now’s Deborah Gates reported:
The apparently abrupt closing this week of four Bonanza Steakhouse restaurant franchises in Maryland and Delaware caught not only city leaders by surprise, but officials at the Plano, Texas-based parent company who said Tuesday they knew nothing about it.
“They had no forewarning,” said Monica Feid, a spokeswoman for Metromedia Restaurant Group in Dallas. “It is an isolated situation; the general counsel at MRG is trying to get more information and an understanding about what the franchisee’s issues are. They had no idea (restaurants) were closing.”
Bonanza franchise locations owned by Young Lee closed in the last few days in Pocomoke City in Maryland and in Delaware in Millsboro, Milford and Delmar, she confirmed.
Young Lee’s group had purchased the four established restaurants less than a year ago. 
The Pocomoke City Manager Russell Blake said that Ponderosa “… was a great part of our community for about 15 years.” Sara Bynum-King, town manager in Delmar City, said by all indicators, “business appeared to be brisk.”
Blake theorized that increased franchise competition from new chain eateries such as Ruby Tuesday and The Greene Turtle hastened the restaurants’ demise.
[At right: locations of the four closed Bonanza franchises]
Franchisor MRG, which operates Bennigans, Steak and Ale and The Tavern brands, a portfolio of more than 800 restaurants in 16 countries, (including 340 Bonanza/Ponderosa locations) seemed as surprised as anyone at the restaurant closings, and has been trying to get in touch with the franchisee. MRG’s Feig said:
“We’re not sure why they’re closed…. The corporation is trying to get to the bottom of this.”
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Just like to say to all of our customers and to all of my employees that the closing was due to poor Management by the owners. Not from the store management. We did everthing the owners wanted us to do. They failed all of us, from employee, manager, & distributors.
Russell Blake mis spoke. Bonanza, not Ponderosa, was a part of our community for 21, not 15 years.