Celebrity Owned Connecticut Restaurant Closes Abruptly
The Mark and Donnie Wahlber chain restaurant, Wahlburgers, has closed their location in the Weststfield Mall in Trumbull.
Even though the hand written sign that appeared on the restaurant recently stated "Closed Until Further Notice", according to ctpost.com, Trumbull's economic development director told officials that she does not expect the restaurant to re-open, in fact, the restaurant has been removed from a list of Trumbull's restaurants on their website.
So chalk it up to another casualty of the COVID-19 pandemic, that has hit all restaurants particularly hard.
The Wahlburgers chain, which was the only one in Connecticut, and owned by actors Mark and Donnie Wahlberg, first opened in the Westfield Mall back in 2017, and also featured a visit from Mark in June of 2019.
The Wahlburgers Trumbull location is not the only one of their restaurants to have closed their doors recently, they have already shut down all of their Florida locations, and have even closed their lone European location in London, all due to the impact of the pandemic.
Even though Connecticut has already lost more than 600 restaurants since the start of the coronavirus, Rina Bakalar, who is the Head of Economic Development in the town of Trumbull, told ctpost.com that she's confidently optimistic that the Wahlburgers location will be filled soon.
It's a prime location on the mall property, and I believe it will be occupied by another restaurant in the future but the reoccupation may take a bit of time given the current COVID-19 impact.
Since the Wahlburgers chain is a franchise, formed in 2011 in Massachusetts, the restaurants are basically paid for by independent operators. Mark and Donnie collect 6 percent royalties on receipts and a $40,000 franchise fee for each location.