
3

"Highlighted among the casual dining groups that recorded closures in 2020, this Italian-themed chain’s struggles are attributed less to the single shock of the pandemic and more to an unstable business model created by heavy expansion backed by private-equity debt; the pandemic simply exposed those weaknesses. The CRR’s figures on rising closures and reported job losses position it as the sort of operator that can shrink and relaunch in new forms, unlike smaller independents that often cannot survive the same downturn." - James Hansen