Around New England

Papa Gino’s Closes Seven Restaurants — With Eye To Expanding

February 26, 2019

Papa Gino’s closed seven restaurants this past weekend, the company said.

The company is closing two restaurants in Framingham (on Route 9 and Route 30) as well as locations in Natick (on Route 9), Melrose, Brockton (on Crescent Street), and Wilbraham. The company is also closing a restaurant in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

Papa Gino’s chief executive officer Bill Van Epps made the announcement at 5 p.m. Sunday, February 24 on the parent company’s Facebook page.

“We do not anticipate any additional closings,” he wrote. “We are doing everything we can to take care of the managers and team members at these locations, including transfers to other Papa Gino’s locations or placement assistance to help them find new jobs.”

The closed restaurants were underperforming, he said.

“Fortunately, there are far more positive changes on the way,” Van Epps wrote, without saying what they are.

He announced that Papa Gino’s “is now part of a newly formed company called New England Authentic Eats.”

In November 2018 the company that owned Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo, PGHC Holdings, headquartered in Dedham, closed 95 restaurants. It also announced at the time that it would declare bankruptcy for protection against creditors while selling itself to Wynnchurch Capital. That sale has been completed.

Earlier this month Van Epps said the company will remodel existing restaurants and focus on expanding online ordering, catering, and delivery, in part to appeal to younger customers, according to the Boston Business Journal. He also said the company plans to expand to New York, New Jersey, and other East Coast states, beyond the New England states where it does business now.

The web site of Papa Gino’s listed 89 locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island as of Monday night, February 25.

The company has roots in a pizza place that opened in East Boston in 1961.