Elephant Bar Restaurant Closes Three Bay Area Locations

The Elephant Bar Restaurant has abruptly closed its Dublin, Campbell and Cupertino locations. The eatery has struggled with financial woes for several years, closing 16 California locations in 2014.

The restaurant, which opened its first location in 1980, filed for bankruptcy in 2014. The company filed in federal court in Santa Ana a motion for approval of $3.3 million of "debtor-in-possession" financing that is aimed at allowing the company to stay in business during bankruptcy proceedings. At the time, executives said they intended to sell the chain. CM Ebar LLC took over the Elephant Bar locations in 2014 after the Elephant Bar executives blamed the "challenging economic environment and increasing competitiveness of the industry" for the company's financial issues.

Last year, the company suffered another blow when it reported the discovery of a data breach at multiple locations across the state.

The restaurant chain reported online, “On November 3, 2015, Elephant Bar was alerted to a potential security incident by its card processor. Based upon an extensive forensic investigation, it appears that unauthorized individuals installed malicious software on our payment processing systems at certain restaurant locations designed to capture payment card information, including cardholder name, payment card account number, card expiration date, and verification code.”

The Elephant Bar locations in Fremont, Hayward, Daly City and Burlingame remain open. The corporate office is located in Texas. Representatives with the Elephant Bar could not be reached for comment.

Photo courtesy Autumn Johnson/ Patch