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The Cracker Barrel-owned chain opened its Detroit outpost in 2014. (Photo: Punch Bowl Social)
As the coronavirus crisis halts the downtown Detroit service economy that sprouted around the needs of post-bankruptcy newcomers, many have wondered what will become of "New Detroit."
Today we received what could be a harbinger: Punch Bowl Social has permanently laid off about 100 employees, according to a regulatory filing first reported by the The Detroit News.
The large bar-restaurant-game center opened on Broadway in 2014, catering primarily to white millennials as more moved downtown. It came under fire a year later when a black patron alleged staff hurled racist insults at her and removed her forcibly.
Though the employees are done, Punch Bowl claims it eventually will be back.
"When the government allows restaurants and bars to reopen, the company will determine appropriate timing to hire and train new staff," wrote Johanne Ladis, a spokeswoman for the company, in an email to The News.
But a separate regulatory filing suggests the fate of the Cracker Barrel-owned chain is far more uncertain. According to a report by Restaurant Business, Cracker Barrel in late March decided "not to rescue Punch Bowl Social (PBS) from foreclosure, citing 'substantial uncertainties' about the brand and the need to sustain its core business."
Punch Bowl's lenders declared the company in default on its loan on [March 20] and that they intended to foreclose on the chain's assets.
Cracker Barrel said it will use money that might have otherwise gone to PBS to sustain its 664-unit namesake business and 28-store Maple Street as takeout-and-delivery-only operations during the pandemic. It suggested in the securities filing that fundamental problems with PBS were exacerbated by the COVID-19 epidemic. It did not provide details about those issues.
Cracker Barrel reportedly has an approximately 60-percent stake in Punch Bowl Social, a Denver-based chain with 18 locations in addition to Detroit.
