What restaurant is next after Bennigan’s?

To tighten ship, or even close, that is.

Locally, here in Cedar Hill in particular and the Best Southwest part of suburban Dallas in general, we have several representatives of the top candidates among restaurant chains to close at least some individual restaurants, if not have company-wide troubles.

In general, think of the casual/semi-casual dining type and you’ve got the idea: from Red Robin at the low end through Cheesecake Factory and on to Brinker, the parent of Chili’s, Macaroni Grill, On the Border, Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

Why?

Anthony Mirhaydari says its because the current recession is shaping up to be more like the Carter-Reagan recession than the H.W. Bush or Clinton-Shrub recessions. I agree.

Both those recessions did not have oil or food prices as drivers. And, neither lasted as long as the Carter-Reagan one.

Beyond that, let me weigh in with some other observations.

Too much overlap.

How different, really, are Olive Garden (Darden’s) and Romano’s (Brinker’s)? No, I’m not encouraging restaurant company collusion, just making an observation.

For that matter, within Brinker’s, how much difference is there between Romano’s and Maggiano’s Little Italy?

As for Bennigan’s? The signs were there a month ago.