Old Country Buffet Heads Back For Another Helping Of Abrupt Restaurant Closures

Image courtesy of Aranami

While former employees of buffet restaurants owned by Ovation Brands, including the brands Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, Fire Mountain, and Ryan’s, are suing the company in federal court for eliminating their jobs with no advance notice, the company went ahead and closed another round of restaurants with no advance notice.

The closings include all but one of the company’s restaurants in Minnesota, the state where the Old Country Buffet chain originally began, are now closed, according to the Duluth News-Tribune.

A sign on the door instructs employees to stop by in the afternoon to pick up their final paychecks, but it’s not clear whether front-line workers had any advance knowledge that their restaurants would be closing. Customers didn’t, and they stopped by to find closed doors and no mountains of mashed potatoes.

Here are the closings on Tuesday that we know of. If you hear about a restaurant in the chain in your area closing, or if you have any other information, please let us know.

Unless specified, the restaurants were Old Country Buffet brand.

San Jose, CA
Arlington Heights, IL
Laurel, MD
Wyoming, MI
Duluth, MN
Mankato, MN
Greenwood, SC (Ryan’s)
Alcoa, TN (Ryan’s)
Crossville, TN (Ryan’s)
Bellingham, WA
Onalaska, WI

FURTHER READING:
5 Strange Things We Learned About Sudden Closures Of Old Country And HomeTown Buffets

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