Houlihan's Abruptly Closes 2 NJ Sites

NEW JERSEY – A popular restaurant chain has abruptly closed two New Jersey sites after filing for bankruptcy.

Houlihan’s, a popular bar and restaurant chain, closed its sites in Hasbrouck Heights and Woodbridge on Sunday.

Matt Manning, chief restructuring officer for parent company HRI, Inc., said in a statement that “there is never a good time to close a restaurant, but due to the wind down of the bankruptcy estate, the last day of business for both of these locations was December 28.”

“HRI is doing everything possible to minimize the impact to affected team members by working to place them at different continuing locations and reaching out to local restaurant companies on behalf of the team members,” said Manning.

The remaining New Jersey locations will stay open. They're located in Bayonne, Brick, Bridgewater, Cherry Hill, Fairfield, Paramus, Ramsey and Secaucus.

The brick-and-mortar retail landscape continued its decline in New Jersey in 2019, with several national chains announcing dozens of store closings by 2020.

Read more: Dozens Of NJ Chain Stores Close In 2019

Houlihan's filed for bankruptcy in November, but was recently bought up by Landry's Inc. for $40 million, according to Bloomberg.

The Wheaton and Geneva restaurant closures are part of a sweep of store closures on Dec. 28 and 29 that included locations throughout Missouri, Kansas, and Michigan, according to Houston Business Journal.