Costa Mesa-based S.B. Restaurant Co. has closed 16 of its 45 Elephant Bar locations.
Its two Orange County restaurants closed last week: Irvine on June 11 and Laguna Hills on June 12.
Those were the last two of the 16 to close, said spokesperson Leslie Liberatore.
“There is not enough traffic at those locations to sustain the business,” she said. “This is not unusual in the casual-dining sector at all anymore.”
She said there were about 60 workers at each of the two OC restaurants.
“A lot of us had been hoping to get transferred to Laguna Hills,” said an employee reached by phone at the Irvine location on Culver Drive, on its last day. “Until we found out they were closing, too.”
Elephant Bar’s annual revenue was $165 million in 2013, down 4.1% from 2012, according to the trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News.
Casual dining has been hit hard of late.
Huntington Beach-based BJ’s Restaurants Inc. reported comparable restaurant sales declined 2.9% and 2.7% in its last two quarters, respectively.
S.B. Restaurants is affiliated with Greenwich, Conn.-based private equity fund KarpReilly LLC, which invests in other restaurant concepts, including Irvine-based Habit Restaurants LLC and national chain Hooters Inc., according to its website.
Liberatore said there are 29 Elephant Bar locations remaining in six states.
The next nearest location to Orange County is in La Mirada.
