Domino’s Closes Four Stores

Broken Ark Pizza Inc. of Bentonville closed its four Domino’s Pizza stores in Northwest Arkansas in July and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection on July 25 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fayetteville.

The company, which was owned by Loyd and Tammy Hardison of Bentonville, had one Domino’s store in each of the four largest cities in the area — Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville and Springdale.

“This is liquidation,” said Stanley V. Bond of Fayetteville, attorney for Broken Ark. “The business is closed. It no longer exists.”

Bond said the four different locations employed a total of 60-80 people, mostly part-time delivery drivers.

The court filing listed assets of $100,000 and liabilities of $440,302, including $159,052 to the Internal Revenue Service and $90,000 to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration for state sales and payroll taxes.

The filing also listed $418,500 that creditors claim Broken Ark owes them as the balance of lease payments. Of that amount, $72,000 is claimed by Barbre Group Investments LLC of Tulsa for the Springdale location, $27,900 is allegedly owed to George C. Faucette of Fayetteville for the store in that city, and $67,500 is claimed by Baker-Sharp LLC of Bentonville for the balance of lease payments for a store in Bentonville that Broken Ark never moved into after signing the lease on March 25.

A meeting of creditors is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Sept. 5 at the Harvey and Bernice Jones Center for Families in Springdale.

“I think after we file more information, you’ll see that the pizza business may not be so good,” Bond said.

Sales Slip in First Half for Five of Top 10

Five of Fayetteville’s top 10 restaurants made less money in the first half of 2002 than they did in the the first half of 2001.

Red Lobster was still No. 1 with gross revenue of $1.93 million, a 7.9 percent increase.

But Jose’s Inc., usually No. 2 in the ranking, had a 14.7 percent decrease in sales to $1.41 million, knocking it out of the No. 2 spot to No. 3 behind Chili’s, which had $1.42 million in sales.

Ozark Brewing Co., a major draw on Dickson Street along with Jose’s, had a 13 percent decrease in sales to $884,350.

No. 6 Applebee’s saw a decrease in sales of 9.3 percent to $970,153.

The numbers reflect actual sales from December 2001 through May.

Shorty Small’s, which opened last year, made an impressive first appearance at No. 6 with $995,456.

Mathews Management Co.’s new McDonald’s restaurant on Joyce Boulevard clocked sales of $915,000, which ranked it No. 8 and knocked the Mathews brothers’ ’50s McDonald’s on 15th Street out of the top 10. (The ’50s McDonald’s had a 16.5 percent decrease in sales for the first half of this year from $833,800 to $746,100.)

Penguin Ed’s BBQ had sales of $924,900, but that accounts for two locations, so we didn’t include the barbecue eateries in our list as one restaurant.

Jose’s ranked as Fayetteville’s No. 1 restaurant in 1996 and 1997. Since then, Red Lobster has held that title, and Jose’s was No. 2 in the 12-month rankings.

Jose’s Inc. consists of Jose’s Mexican Restaurant and Bordino’s. Joe Fennel of Fayetteville, the owner of Jose’s Inc., refuses to break down sales between Jose’s Mexican Restaurant and Bordino’s, saying they are one restaurant operating under one roof.

Red Lobster is a chain owned by Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando, Fla.