Cleveland-based casual chain Melt Bar & Grilled announced that it permanently closed its doors months after filing for bankruptcy.
The brand had four locations in Ohio when it filed in June. Three of those shuttered, with the intention of solely focusing on the original restaurant in Lakewood, Ohio. Owner Matt Fish said in a Facebook post that a renovation, rebranding, and relaunch started on September 9, however the “financial burden of bankruptcy, combined with the lack of robust sales have proved to be completely devastating.”
“The world and the restaurant/service industry changed drastically during the pandemic,” Fish said in the post. “Hundreds of difficult decisions and countless efforts were made to put the company in a position to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, these determined efforts were not enough to save the company.”
The concept debuted on September 22, 2006, in Lakewood. It later received national attention in 2009 and 2010 when it appeared on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives” and the Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food.” Because of the growing popularity, the Lakewood unit added a second dining room in an adjacent storefront and an outdoor patio.
By 2010, Melt Bar & Grilled began self-funded expansion with a second restaurant in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and a third store in Independence, Ohio. The brand then opened a commissary in 2011 to better manage supply and secured a loan in 2012 to enable more expansion.
The fast casual reached a peak of 13 outlets in in 2017.
Melt Bar & Grilled continued to thrive in 2018, 2019, and early 2020, and reached more than 360 employees and annual sales of over $18 million. More growth plans were coming, but that changed when the COVID pandemic arrived. The chain was forced to shut down full-service dining for 14 weeks. Sales never returned to pre-pandemic volumes and increases in cost of goods and labor hurt operations. Despite help from the Paycheck Protection Program and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, net income was still too low to pay off debt, operational expenses, and lease obligations.
The company was forced to close stores and lay off employees. It also entered a forbearance agreement to cut debt in half, but that wasn’t enough either.
“Once we recognized the restaurant industry was not going back to normal, we made drastic changes,” Fish said. “In just over 2 years we pulled every lever possible to save the company. Closed 12 locations, trimmed our staff and corporate team down and reduced or eliminated as many expenses as possible. One of the final levers to pull was the Chapter 11 sub 5 bankruptcy we filed in June of 2024. This was strategically done to give us a fighting chance to re-organize and re-build the company.”
Melt Bar and Grilled was one of several restaurants to turn to bankruptcy in 2024. Some of the more notable names include Red Lobster, TGI Fridays, World of Beer, and Buca di Beppo.
