Bennigan's has Gone Bankrupt! | Seoul EatsSeoul Eats

Bennigan’s has Gone Bankrupt!

Bennigan’s was my college job and selling their O’Turkey O’Toole, Monte Cristos, O’Pastas, and Chicken Fajitas kept me in beer money. Now they have filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy, so many of the restaurants in America will be closing. What does this mean for Korean Bennigan’s? Apparently nothing according to this article.

The sudden bankruptcy of the U.S. family restaurant franchise Bennigan’s and the downsizing announcement of Starbucks have consumers in Korea wondering if popular foreign chains will soon start vanishing from the domestic scene.

The chains say no, adding Asia is considered one of the most lucrative markets by upper management. This seems true according to latest developments.

Starbucks might have suffered a third-quarter loss last year, but its international revenue rose 24 percent, far higher than its 6-percent growth in the United States.

Within three years, more than 40 percent of Starbucks outlets will be outside the U.S. from 29 percent now, BusinessWeek cited a company spokeswoman as saying.

The same goes for McDonald’s. The fast food giant saw better-than-expected net profit in the second quarter thanks to strong international sales. Asia-Pacific sales jumped 8.8 percent, higher than just above 3 percent in the United States.

“I feel lucky to be part of the Asia team because we’re posting pretty strong numbers unlike other parts of the world,” said one executive of an international restaurant franchise, who asked not to be named.

So far so good, but the question is how long can it last?

I think it can last for a while, but I’m sure that many Koreans will see the news of the US failure and they will slowly start withdrawing from Bennigan’s. Koreans hate failure and I think many of them are superstitious, so they wouldn’t want to eat at an ill-fated restaurant. Also, the Korean Bennigan’s is one of the worst foreign chains in Korea. I think the food is tremendously overpriced and there is very little incentive to go there. I mean at least Outback gives you all the brown bread you can eat. I’ve found it’s like pulling teeth trying to get ONE extra tortilla for my fajitas. AND honestly, how in the heck is fajitas Irish!

I’m not going to rant and I am not going on a diatribe about how their monte cristo is the most disgusting abomination ever created. And I will not rant about all of the pasta on their menu, because we all know that pasta and Guinness go hand in hand.

Yeah….

Oh, let’s not even go into T.G.I.F’s.

Dan

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About the Author

Daniel

Daniel Gray is a Korean adoptee that returned to Korean in 2005 because he wanted to try and find his birth mother and to learn about Korean culture. He started a restaurant review blog in 2007, www.seouleats.com, that became a local and international hit. He and his blog has been featured in the New York Times, Monocle Magazine, The Kimchi Chronicles, Bizarre Foods, Rudy Maxa, Olive Magazine, Euronews and much more. He now is a partner at O’ngo Food Communications (www.ongofood.com), which is a culinary tourism and consulting company that offers Korean cooking classes and restaurant tours to travelers. Their food tours and cooking classes are ranked as one of the top attractions in Seoul according to tripadvisor. Daniel can be found at the links below or at Google+.