NEWS
4 • September 25, 2006
NATION’S RESTAURANT NEWS
IRVINE, CALIF. — After filing for its
second Chapter 11 bankruptcy reor-
ganization in three years,Spectrum
Restaurant Group is planning to
shrink its nine-brand base by spin-
ning off the 84-unit Grandy’s chain
and possibly converting other low-
performing concepts.
One day before the Irvine-
based company’s Aug. 29 court
petition for protection from credi-
tors, Spectrum’s owner, the long-
time chain conglomerate leader
Anwar Soliman, resigned as chief
executive and stated plans to
retire from the board.
Replacing Soliman as chief
executive was Tony Wolf, formerly
of the turnaround firm Glass &
Associates.
The company declared that it
owed $7.4 million in secured and
$22 million in unsecured debt.
Spectrum said its secured creditor
is BET Associates, a New York-
based private-equity firm involved
in the 1999 purchase of Grandy’s
and the other brands from Newport
Beach, Calif.-based American
Restaurant Group, or ARG.
However, according to court doc-
uments filed by BET Associates,
Spectrum owed it $9 million. BET
also accused the Soliman owner-
ship regime of cannibalizing assets
to fund operations in the face of
mounting losses by selling and con-
verting restaurants and diverting
funds for “personal use.”
Those charges, however,
remain on hold while the federal
bankruptcy court reviews the
company’s reorganization plan.
In its original incarnation more
than 20 years ago under former
leader Larry Mindel, Spectrum
had as its nucleus a trend-setting
group of authentic, upscale Italian
restaurants. But the reconstituted
company’s largest holding cur-
rently is Grandy’s, a quick-service
chicken specialist known for
“home-style” cooking. All but four
branches of that chain are fran-
chised, primarily in Texas and
Oklahoma.
Headquartered in Lewisville,
Texas, Grandy’s reported sys-
temwide sales of $60.1 million for
2005.
No potential buyers for Gran-
dy’s were immediately identified.
The three-daypart concept was
founded by Walter Johnson and
Rex Sanders in 1973 a