Olive Garden rival down to 38 restaurants after two bankruptcies

• Liabilities of $10 million to $100 million

• Between 200 and 999 creditors

• Sysco Corp. listed as the largest unsecured creditor

• Significant obligations to landlords and property managers across multiple states

Court filings on PacerMonitor also show that GPEE Lender, LLC, the company’s prepetition senior secured lender, provided debtor-in-possession financing through a $3.5 million revolving credit facility approved during the Chapter 11 process.

Taken together, the filings reflect the broader pressures facing legacy casual-dining chains operating under rising costs and shifting consumer demand.

What went wrong for Bravo Brio?

While the pandemic hurt the chain and current economic conditions have presented ongoing challenges, The Street advisor and RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino thinks that Bravo Brio lost its way.

“I actually went down the rabbit hole on this one, and it’s kind of actually interesting to me because I think it worked when Brio mimicked the independent family Italian restaurant feel, so that people had a choice between the independent family Italian restaurant or Olive Garden,” he said.

But, after the first bankruptcy, he noted that private equity made the chain more like its rival.

“Once the PEs and corporate took over, it became a little more corporate feeling, and I think that removed the choice because now you had the corporate feeling Olive Garden on one end of the spectrum, and actual local family restaurants,” he added.

Brio, Miserandino shared, sacrificed what made it special, giving customers no reason to go there.

Restaurant Dive noted that Bravo and Brio had heavy exposure in malls, which exacerbated their struggles.

“The chains have had difficulty with restaurants located in shopping centers that have high vacancies and low foot traffic, problems which have only worsened with discretionary consumer spending softening. The press release also cited ongoing inflationary pressures and increased food and labor costs as contributing to its deteriorating financial condition,” the website reported.

Related: Major pizza chain might sell business after closing 250 locations

Brio is not the only Italian chain struggling

A location-level example helps illustrate how Brio’s struggles have played out in practice. Not every Brio that closed shut down because of poor sales.

The Brio Italian Grille at 550 S. Rosemary Ave in West Palm Beach’s CityPlace is listed as permanently closed on Yelp. That location ultimately shut down as the district shifted toward higher-end redevelopment and a changing tenant mix.

The West Palm Beach Brio closed along with a Cheesecake Factory, Rita’s Italian Ice, and a Moe’s Southwest Grill as the shopping plaza added an Eataly, along with a number of restaurants imported from Manhattan.

The chain is not alone in those struggles. Bertucci’s and Bucca di Beppo both filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Romano’s Macaroni Grill survived bankruptcy but has been in steady decline.

Brio’s real problem is that it sits in the priciest, most exposed tier of casual dining.

Black Box Intelligence found that through late 2025, value-driven casual-dining chains led the industry in same-store sales growth, while fine dining and upscale casual were the weakest segments. As consumers grew more cautious, the firm noted that upscale casual guests are prime trade-down targets, meaning a polished-casual brand like Brio was getting undercut by the very Olive Garden it once competed against on experience.

Related: Sam’s Club leans on Amazon playbook to challenge Costco

This story was originally published by TheStreet on May 31, 2026, where it first appeared in the Restaurants section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.