Owner of Acapulco, Chevys files for bankruptcy

Cypress-based Real Mex Restaurants, which also owns El Torito, will be to looking for a buyer over the next few months. But it might not be easy - the chain restaurant business has yet to recover from the recession, and any deal will likely mean consolidation (translation: store closures, layoffs). Real Mex, which employs 11,000 workers, had tried unsuccessfully to stay out of bankruptcy court by working out a debt-restructuring plan with its lenders. From the LAT:

RM Restaurant Holding Corp. said its revenue has fallen to $478 million last year from $553 in 2008. The company's 178 restaurants are seeing fewer diners, according to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. The restaurants are in states battered by "significant increases in unemployment" and the home mortgage crisis, said Chief Financial Officer Richard P. Dutkiewicz in the filing. About 84% of the company's locations are in California, where the purchasing and distribution facilities are also based.