Closure of Boston Market stores in Newton and Bristol due to the demise of the company; 7 remaining stores received eviction notices.

With the near-complete closure of all of its Connecticut restaurants over the past few months, Boston Market's operation in that state seems susceptible to the financial problems the entire chain is coping with.

Boston Market has been evicted from its restaurants in West Hartford, Danbury, Stratford, Meriden, Wilton and East Haven this year, and last week a Superior Court judge ordered them to vacate their Old Greenwich store. A week ago, they received notice of the eviction of their restaurant in Meriden, where an employee said Wednesday that they probably won't open after Friday. In Bloomfield, the chain was evicted a year ago, and the building owner is bringing in a bank to renovate the space.

The restaurant in Bristol was marked with a "for lease" sign and the restaurant in Newington was closed with a notice posted on the door from the state tax department suspending its sales and use tax license effective Nov. 9. The chain's collapse in Connecticut echoes a national trend that the trade magazine Restaurant Business called a "death spiral," lawsuits from suppliers and employees, penalties for missed tax payments and recent news of a federal investigation into unpaid wages.

The company's Colorado headquarters did not respond to emails this week, and the listed phone number for its corporate offices gave a recorded message saying, "You have reached a number that is not set up to receive calls." In Connecticut, several attorneys representing various Boston Market commercial landlords said it's not surprising. They said they rarely or never saw a situation like Boston Market: in nearly a dozen eviction cases in the state, they never filed responses. Not a single lawyer has come forward to defend them, not even to ask for a continuance during the extended trial. Instead, the company practically pleaded guilty; judges in each case ruled in favor of the landlord.

Boston Market went through bankruptcy in 1998.

McDonald's bought the company in 2000 and ran it for seven years, then sold it to Sun Capital Partners, a private equity firm. When Boston Market opened in Hialeah, Florida, in 2013, it was heralded as the first new restaurant in 13 years.

Engage Brands, a unit of reinvestment firm Jignesh Pandya's Rohan Group, bought Boston Market in 2020. Due to the difficulties faced by the food service industry due to the pandemic, Pandya has brought more attention to the organization with a leaning towards takeaway food. By 2022, however, there were financial problems that reached catastrophic levels this year.

U.S. Foods, a food supplier, is being sued for more than $11.5 million, the largest of several dozen lawsuits from suppliers, employees, food distributors and other creditors. Six months ago, the Colorado Department of Revenue cited unpaid wages and taxes when it briefly seized Boston Market's headquarters, a three-story building in an office park in Golden.

The company settled, but three months later, the New Jersey Department of Labor closed 27 Boston Market restaurants because of $630,000 in back wages owed to more than 300 employees. Boston Market paid that bill and was allowed to resume operations, but this month Restaurant Business magazine reported that the U.S. Department of Labor has launched an investigation of the chain because of allegations of late or illegal wage withholding nationwide.

In contrast, virtually all of the chain's restaurants in Connecticut were opened in the early 1990s, and court documents indicate that year's rent was about $4,000 to $5,000. As a result of underpayment of rent, fines and attorney's fees, building owners claim Boston Market owes $29,384 for its West Hartford location, $80,982 in Danbury, $149,326 in Bloomfield and more than $449,000 in Fairfield. The company's website now does not provide a list of locations, but shows a map still pointing to the seven stores operating in Connecticut, even though all seven have received evacuation notices.