'It's been a rough few months, but we're excited to welcome our team and local community members back into our restaurants,' Sellers said. Other restaurants will open in phases with dates to be announced soon. He warned that his company isn’t the only one in trouble and that a “wave of bankruptcies” will come.Īlthough its moving forward with bankruptcy, BarFly is reopening Michigan dining rooms on June 13 and reopening dining rooms in Lincoln, Nebraska, and Indianapolis, Indiana, on June 22. Sellers spoke via Zoom before the Michigan House of Representatives Regulatory Reform Committee Wednesday and said HopCat was evicted from one location and is in default at other stores. “We were servicing the debt up until COVID.” “When COVID hit, that just put it over the edge,” Sellers told MLive. The brand faces more than $30 million in debt. Then some underperforming locations shut down, and the COVID pandemic worsened matters. In the years following, HopCat’s expansion was financed through debt rather than cash to speed up growth, according to the media outlet. The brand was founded in 2008 with the opening of HopCat in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

MLive reported that HopCat, which has 14 locations, tried takeout, but the strategy proved ineffective with the company losing cash. “After an exhaustive examination of all options, we've determined that the Chapter 11 process is the best path forward to enable BarFly to focus on continued growth and transformation for the future.'īarFly closed all of its locations in mid-March with the onset of the COVID pandemic. “We were meeting these challenges, and operationally the business was sound until the recent global pandemic pushed us into an unforeseen economic crisis and a 100 percent drop in revenue for almost three months,” said Sellers in a statement.

Mark Sellers, founder of BarFly, noted that increased competition and saturation of the craft beer market were also significant obstacles for the company. During the proceeding, BarFly expects to pay employee wages and benefits, pay vendors and suppliers, and honor gift cards and loyalty rewards. The company said the goal of the bankruptcy is to reduce debt and position itself for long-term growth. I?ve also included a photo of my receipt to reflect our payment and tip for Rico because he was pulled from the opposite side of the restaurant to serve us.Michigan-based BarFly Ventures, the parent of HopCat, Stella’s Lounge, and Grand Rapids Brewing Co., filed for bankruptcy, citing “untenable” debt exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. I did not get his name but I snapped a photo of him waiting on the couple that was seated in his section after my husband and I were seated. That server definitely seemed to have an issue with my husband and I though. I honestly don?t think he had too many tables, because he didn?t have a problem serving the other couple. I understand being swamped and overwhelmed, I think the way the server handled it was wrong. The server that rejected us because he had too many tables didn?t seem to have a problem waiting on this couple and as far as I could tell, no other tables in this server?s section had left the restaurant. This was the same table that the server cut off one of the guests ordering their food to tell the hostess to seat my husband and I somewhere else. I did notice that after we got our appetizer another couple was seated on the other side of the table immediately to our left. He immediately apologized for us having to wait and for the server that was unwilling to wait on us. Rico was assigned to our table and he was wonderful. The server visited the table next to us several times and never acknowledged us as we sat for 20 minutes waiting for another server to come to our table. From what I could see he had the table he was currently waiting on, the table that my husband and I were at and one other table near the end of the bar that had people sitting at them. I didn?t get the hostesses response because I was concerned about the server being so rude and displeased about my husband and I being seated in his section. Can you seat them somewhere else? The server even interrupted the young man who was putting in his order for food to tell her that. As soon as we were seated the server that was taking orders at the table next to our table says very loudly to the hostess ?I can?t take another table, I have too many. Our hostess took us to the table right by the door. When we entered there were several empty tables throughout the restaurant. We visited on a Saturday afternoon between 12:30-2pm. Again the food was the best part of our visit. I really wanted to take my husband here because he loves brisket. I?ll start with the good-the food was AMAZING!! My husband got the ?risk it for the brisket? and I got the beyond burger.

Hopcat nutrition menu