Restaurant Chain Closing 20 Outlets In Region

MOUNTAINSIDE, NJ (CBS) -- It'll soon be a little more difficult to get a steak dinner around here.  The "Charlie Brown's" restaurant chain is consolidating.

The parent company, based in North Jersey, blames poor performance for the decision to shutter Charlie Brown's steakhouses in Blackwood, Langhorne, and Allentown, just three of the 20 locations to be closed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

Most of the restaurants slated to close are in North Jersey --  twelve in all. The chain also operates the "Bugaboo Creek" steak house chain, and 10 of those will be shut down -- none around here.

The end result is an approximately 50 percent overall reduction in the number of locations along the East Coast.  In our area, for example, Charlie Brown's will remain open in Springfield (Delaware County) and Woodbury, NJ, along with Bugaboo Creek locations at Franklin Mills and in Newark, Del.

Reported by David Madden, KYW Newsradio 1060.