Courtney Cole, WBZ-TV
NORTHBORO — A well-known restaurant chain has closed seven of its New England locations — five of which are in the Boston area.
If you’ve connected 95 Washington St., Canton to your phone in the past few days, your card may have warned you: Bertucci’s is closed.
When you called, you may have heard this on voicemail: “We are very sorry your favorite place is closed. We want to thank you for your loyalty to Bertucci’s over the years.”
Or if you showed up in person hoping it was a bug, you were greeted by a sign on the door.
“It’s sad to see her around,” said resident Mary Lyons.
“I was a little surprised, even though you never see a lot of people here,” said Kitty Zimmerman, another resident.
On Monday, Bertucci’s Restaurant, LLC voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to the US Bankruptcy Court case document, the former Bertucci’s Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta filed for bankruptcy in April 2018.
The document goes on to state that Bertucci’s, LLC “due to COVID and the impact of inflation, sales declined and expenses increased.”
According to the case management summary, revenue for fiscal 2021 was $97.9 million, but there was an operating loss of $14 million and a net loss of $7.2 million.
“The 99 just closed, also in Canton. So there are a lot of people [that] just lost their jobs. Now they just lost their jobs here in Canton, which is sad to lose your job, especially at this time of year,” Zimmerman told Cole.
A Bertucci spokesman said its Beverly, Brockton, Canton, Marlboro and North Attleboro locations are now closed, as are its Manchester and Salem, New Hampshire locations.
According to Bertucci’s website, 20 locations are still open in Massachusetts, plus one in New Hampshire and one in Rhode Island.
In Massachusetts, Bertucci’s Beverly, Brockton, Canton, Marlboro and North Attleboro locations closed Monday, a spokesman for the regional Italian chain confirmed.
In New Hampshire, a Nashua Bertucci’s is the only one left in the state after restaurants in Manchester and Salem closed.
Twenty locations remain open in Massachusetts, for a total of 31. Employees at the now-closed Bertucci’s restaurants will be relocated to other locations “whenever possible,” the spokesman said.
Lyons said she still plans to visit another location to support Bertucci’s.
“The rustico pizza was good and I liked their rolls. So those were probably my two favorites,” Lyons told Cole.
The first Bertucci’s opened in Somerville in 1981. The company first filed for bankruptcy in 2018, closing 15 restaurants.
Another popular regional restaurant, Ninety Nine, recently closed four locations in New England.
Employees of CBSBoston.com