National restaurant chain closes last two Columbus-area locations

A longtime casual dining chain has apparently served its final meal in the Columbus area.

O’Charley’s has reportedly closed its final two Columbus-area locations in Reynoldsburg (2272 Baltimore-Reynoldsburg Road) and Canal Winchester (6224 Gender Road).

The apparent closures have unfolded with little communication from O’Charley’s itself. As of Thursday morning, the company had not issued a public statement. However, the O’Charley’s corporate website and social media accounts were offline, Google reported locations as “permanently closed” and word of the closures did emerge through media reports, employees and individual restaurants.

At the O’Charley’s in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, employees gathered for a Facebook video posted to the individual restaurant’s page. At the end of the video, an employee told viewers, “With that, we take our nametags off.”

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

O’Charley’s has been a fixture of the casual dining landscape for decades. The chain was founded in Nashville in 1971 and eventually grew to hundreds of restaurants across the country before its footprint began shrinking in recent years.

The strongest evidence for the reported closure comes from O’Charley’s majority owner, Cannae Holdings. In its first-quarter SEC filing, Cannae reported that O’Charley’s comparable-store sales fell 12.6 percent, driven largely by a 20 percent decline in guest counts. Cannae explicitly called declining same-store sales an “unfavorable trend” likely to hurt future sales and income.

Central Ohio had already experienced several O’Charley’s closures before this week. Restaurants on Morse Road and Georgesville Square closed in 2023 followed by locations near Westerville and in Grove City. That left Reynoldsburg and Canal Winchester as the chain’s final two spots in the Columbus area.

We should note: there are reports some franchise locations will remain open temporarily for a few more weeks.

614NOW reached out to company representatives for comment and will update this story if and when they respond.

Want to read more? Check out our print publications, (614) Magazine and Stock & Barrel. Learn where you can find free copies of our newest issues here!

BROUGHT TO YOU BY