BOSTON (AP) - The Boston-based restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods has been sold, Legal’s chief executive said Tuesday.
Legal’s 25 locations will now be operated by Boston-based PPX Hospitality Brands, which owns the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse restaurants and Strega Italian restaurants, according to a statement.
“It’s a bit of mixed emotions,” Legal President and CEO Roger Berkowitz told Boston.com. “It was a family business - particularly a family business that deals directly with the public. One of the great things, I suppose, about the restaurant business in general is that you come in contact with so many people from so many walks of life.”
Berkowitz will retain ownership rights of the Legal Sea Foods name for the company’s e-commerce and retail business.
The first Legal Sea Foods restaurant opened in 1968 next to a fish market that Berkowitz’s father, George Berkowitz, opened in 1950. While most of its restaurants are in Massachusetts, the company has expanded into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington D.C.
The coronavirus pandemic has been stressful, Berkowitz said.
“Would I have ordinarily chosen to sell?” he said. “Probably not.”
Financial terms of the deal where not disclosed.
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