Bubba Gump is welcoming another seafood chain into its family of restaurants.
Landry's Inc., the parent company that already owns well-known eateries like Bubba Gump and Rainforest Cafe, has reportedly won a bankruptcy auction to take ownership of Ignite Restaurant Group, the parent company of Joe's Crab Shack, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Landry's CEO Tilman Fertitta informed the news site himself of the deal.
Joe's, who filed for bankruptcy a couple of months ago under a $50 million deal with Kelly Investment Group, was snapped up in an auction bid for $55 million in U.S. bankruptcy court by Landry's. Nobody else bid on the company since then, giving Landry's sole ownership by the time the auction ended. For the deal to finalize, a federal judge in Houston must approve it in court next Friday.
Landry's will also pick up Ignite's other business, Brick House, but plans to sell it off as soon as possible. They will instead focus on revamping Joe's Crab Shack and "bringing it back to what it once was before," according to Fertitta. That means that some more locations may close, with Fertitta expecting to end up with about 60 units. Only 75 of the 112 open when Joe's filed for bankruptcy are still operating.
For now, we're leaving it to Bubba to revive and save this bankrupt crab restaurant. Hopefully, everything goes well.
