Another restaurant chain has closed locations. This time it’s the American casual dining chain O’Charley’s Restaurant & Bar, which is owned by Cannae Holdings Inc. And according to multiple media reports, the closures happened nearly out of the blue. Here’s what you need to know.
What’s happened?
This week, all of O’Charley’s Restaurant & Bar’s corporate-owned locations abruptly closed their doors, according to multiple media reports.
The majority of the closures seems to have occurred on Wednesday, September 9, and took even the restaurant’s employees by surprise.
O’Charley’s was founded in Nashville in 1971. At its height, it grew to a footprint of around 250 locations.
But over the past several years, its current owner, Cannae Holdings, had drastically shrunk its footprint in an effort to cut costs and turn the struggling business around.
This year, the company had only 49 corporate-owned locations left, with a few franchise locations as well. But as Restaurant Dive reports, those 49 locations began closing this week.
As for its franchised stores, Nation’s Restaurant News reports that an employee at the Niles, Ohio, franchise location said the store will stay open “as long as possible” but will likely close for good between September 27 and October 4.
Why did O’Charley’s corporate locations close?
Neither O’Charley’s nor Cannae Holdings has issued a public statement on the chain’s closure.
Fast Company has reached out to Cannae Holdings for comment.
As of the time of this writing, Cannae Holdings still lists O’Charley’s as one of its operating companies on its website. However, O’Charley’s actual website, as well as nearly all of its social media channels, appear to have been scrubbed from the internet.
In the past several years, Cannae Holdings has closed numerous O’Charley’s locations. In its most recent second-quarter 2026 financial results, covering the period through June 30, Cannae confirmed it closed four locations year-to-date. It also confirmed that O’Charley’s was struggling.
“The O’Charley’s Restaurant + Bar concept has continued to experience challenges in maintaining its traffic and resulting in a 13% decline in same store sales in the quarter,” the company said. “The management team’s efforts are focused on stabilizing same store sales through menu engineering, guest service and closing underperforming stores.”
Broadly speaking, casual dining chains have faced increased headwinds in recent years, including declining foot traffic, increased operating expenses, and consumers who are more cautious about where they spend their discretionary dollars as inflationary pressures continue to bite.
In 2026 alone, many casual dining chains or their franchisees have closed locations, including many that are more well-known than O’Charley’s, such as Denny’s, Red Lobster, and On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina.
Which O’Charley’s locations have closed?
O’Charley’s website has already been taken offline. However, an Internet Archive version of the site from September 9 shows that O’Charley’s said it had locations in the following states:
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Virginia
- West Virginia
A Google Maps search of O’Charley’s locations in those states reveals that most of the restaurants have already been marked as permanently closed on Google.
Media reports suggest some franchise locations are still operating, though they are likely to close by October.
