O’Charley’s is shutting down all corporate locations

O’Charley’s — the Cannae Holdings-owned, Nashville-based casual-dining chain — abruptly closed all corporate-owned locations on Wednesday.

At its peak in the 2000s, O’Charley’s operated nearly 250 restaurants, and has been closing locations steadily since 2016. In 2023, the company made the decision to shutter around 17% of its portfolio in order to “preserve cashflow” and operate on a more asset-light model. The turnaround plan was short-lived, as by 2026, same-store sales were down by double-digits, and multiple stores closed in July, bringing the O’ Charley’s portfolio down to just 47 locations.

According to local news reports, and corroborated by phone calls to individual restaurants, all corporate-owned restaurants are scheduled to shutter permanently at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, including all eight in the central Tennessee area.

An employee at one franchised O’Charley’s location in Niles, Ohio, confirmed to Nation’s Restaurant News that the restaurant will stay open “as long as possible” and will likely close permanently between Sept. 27 and Oct. 4. An employee at another franchised location in Chester, Virginia, said that the restaurant does not have an official closing date.

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for O’Charley’s said that they “do not have anyone from the company available for comment at this time.”

“There was some sort of board meeting and this decision was not supposed to get leaked, and I don’t even think we were supposed to find out until we showed up for work on Thursday,” an employee at the Harrison, Ohio, O’Charley’s location told 812 Now.

In 2025, O’Charley’s portfolio shrunk by 11%, and sales dropped by 19%, according to Technomic data.

Cannae Holdings also owns and operates Ninety-Nine Restaurant and Pub, a distillery, and multiple European football and rugby clubs.