Bennigan's, Steak & Ale restaurants file for bankruptcy, close

I thought something was up when they took all of the nostalgia off the walls. Say what you will, ...but I'll miss Bennigan's. I was hitting the Lynnhaven location for lunch a lot for the last couple of years. 90% of the time the food was GREAT. Good burgers, Monte Christo Panini, Guinness glazed steaks and mashers, YUM. Be it kitchen staff or servers, everyone has an off day. Best of luck Bennigan's employees !! (...I sure would of like to of picked up a couple of those European style bar stools...)

Those Southwestern Rolls at Bennigan's were very good! Best wishes to the employees, I hope they were given at least 60 days notice, but the way it seems this went down, looks like they showed up and a sign was on the door for the Lynnhaven location.

Get away from the chain stores if you want smaller but higher quality proportions. The chains work on mass appeal through consistency, large portions, and low price. That means lower quality ingredients with a lot of frozen pre-made components.

I'd like to see smaller portions at smaller prices. I'm tired of the $10-15 for huuuge portions. I'd be happy with half the amount at a lower price.

I remember going their on Friday nights after work for beers. The place seemed like it was jumping back in those days. Kirk and Dave our bartenders in Norfolk did an excellent job serving us our frosty brews and our flaming shots.

I agree with most of the comments about the places becoming run down. We visited the Virginia Beach location earlier this year and the food was not that great and the service was totally off. Steak and Ale? I didn't know they were still in business.

Good luck to the employees and let's hope that a decent restaurant takes over the location at the Lynnhaven Mall property.

It seems like the place was getting more run down all the time. They must have know the chain was falling out of favor for a while and didn't want to put any new money into the stores. They sure didn't build up that massive debt over night.

The real reason they shut down is they were terrible over the last few years. I went in there several months ago and the place smelled like stale beer. The service was mediocre, and the food was definitely not up to the standards from 20 years ago. They are in a prime location, so no excuses about the economy bringing them down. With all the competition around, Bennigan's just didn't adapt.

Sorry to hear of the closing and wish those employees the best. Let's bring Steak n Shake in to fill the buildings. Terrific burgers, chili, fries and shakes to die for. And those hot fudge sundaes, ohhhh. Gotta go, drool coming out the corners of my mouth.

Maybe someone should be surprised, but with this economy, one can bet on seeing more of this sort of thing. All a company can do is economize as much as possible and push as much money as possible into creative advertising to try and bring in more customers. That, and PRAY!

this problem started over 30 years ago,and i blame Washington period.the politicians have and still are selling us out to big business and money.look at the facts do you see many politicians filing bankruptcy.they are for their own means.when will we as Americans stop listening to the lies and promises of cheap this and that.where are the 40 hour a week jobs and medical benefits.every American needs steady income and that would include medical.i blame all politicians with the way you have let corporate America sell us out and for what?their contributions to you.stop belittling one another and work together and do what you are elected to do.blame blame blame!stop making excuses and pointing people in the wrong direction.you politicians are so caught up into trying to one up each other the fog of it has clouded your eyes.we need a strong America put your time and resources here,stop letting the billions leave the US along with our jobs.

And so it starts....a bank here, an eatery there....more vacant houses....factories closing down. The vultures are beginning to circle.

In less than eight years, the self-serving idiots in Washington, both Democrat and Republican, have joyfully joined hands and tanked our economy, making us reliant upon the largess of the Asians and Middle East nations, who continue to buy our debt. If they ever stop loaning us money, we'll go immediately into a Depression that will rival "the big one".

The National Debt has grown in the past eight years to nearly twice what it was when our President was sworn in. Hell of a job, George!

On the bright side....we still have T.G.I. Friday's!

Thirty years ago, Bennigans was the place to go. Up until the end, the food still was pretty good for the price. While the Lynnhaven Bennigans was only slightly better kept, I don't believe that the Military Circle location was ever renovated. It looked like a dump inside. If the owners had kept the place up, it might have done ok. I knew someone who worked there and she said the owners refused to renovate. Oh well.

...I didn't know either one was still in business.

I did LOVE those Southwest Eggrolls at Bennigan's...