Report: Boston Market Is Down to Just 16 US Locations

Boston Market, a fast-casual chain known for its rotisserie chickens, is rapidly disappearing from the landscape. Restaurant Business reports that the chain, which boomed in the mid-1990s, is now down to just 16 locations from a peak of more than 1,200. The chain still had around 300 locations at the end of 2022, but 95% of those have now shut down, largely due to unpaid rent or utility bills. The chain filed for bankruptcy in 1998 due to issues including "overzealous expansion and competition from cheap grocery store rotisserie chickens," per Eat This, Not That!.

McDonald's bought Boston Market a couple of years after the bankruptcy filing and sold it to a private equity firm in 2007. It was bought cheaply by the Rohan Group in 2020. Company owner Jay Pandya promised to turn the chain around, but the rate of closures accelerated amid lawsuits and investigations, the Washington Post reported earlier this year. But the chain might survive overseas: Restaurant Business reports that Boston Chicken India opened its first location in November. The Delhi restaurant's Instagram page says it's "India's first flagship outlet of the popular US brand." (More Boston Market stories.)