The Rise And Fall Of Buca Di Beppo

Remember Buca di Beppo? The casual Italian chain restaurant (or really, Italian-American) was known for its red-sauce style, with hearty menu items like lasagna, juicy chicken parmesan, and spaghetti and meatballs, as well as seriously big portions. Somewhat ironically, it wasn't dreamed up by an Italian at all. Founder Phil Roberts hails from central Illinois, but he did have a serious appreciation for the classic Italian-American restaurants with checked tablecloths that had opened around the country. While the Buca di Beppo original menu was devised by an Italian chef, it didn't make any claims of being authentically Italian in any way, although it served a few dishes that are sometimes mistaken as Italian.

Roberts designed Buca di Beppo as an exaggerated version of these restaurants, with kitschy decor, and a low-key, extremely unpretentious vibe. The first location opened in 1993 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and rapidly became a serious success. Fast forward to 2024, and Buca di Beppo could be on the verge of extinction. The chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2024, and while it's still operating as a company, it had to close down around 20% of its restaurants right before that bankruptcy declaration. It now has 44 restaurants, a precipitous drop from its peak of 95 eateries about a decade ago. But the chain's downturn has not been sudden. It started running into trouble sometime around the mid-2000s, meaning it's arguably been struggling for more than half the time it has existed.

After its success in Minneapolis, Buca di Beppo expanded, but also became more corporate. A new CEO for the company in 1996 wanted to ditch the deliberately tacky, fun vibe to make it a more serious Italian restaurant, while simultaneously lowering food quality to make more money. The company also went public in 1999, but the push for profit led founder Phil Roberts to quit the company. Things worsened from there. The SEC investigated the company and, in 2006, found that it had been falsely inflating its revenue by up to 36%, and that three top executives had been embezzling money. This resulted in Buca di Beppo being kicked off of NASDAQ and almost disappearing completely, until Planet Hollywood bought it in 2008. Of course, Planet Hollywood has had plenty of its own problems to contend with. 

The chain's business picked up again from there, hitting its peak of 95 restaurants in 2013. Since then, the chain appears to have been in a slow but subtle decline, running into minor controversies, like when its Times Square location was accused of wage theft. There was generally a slow drip feed of its restaurants closing down, along with signs of financial struggle in 2019. Then COVID hit, often cited as a key reason for the company's bankruptcy, alongside the vague problem of "market pressures." The chain is limping along for now, but with bankruptcy restructuring underway, its future is unclear.