Piccadilly Restaurants history

Within just a couple of years, Tandy advanced into management, moving from one operation to another, until, in 1934, he became the chain's general manager and settled in Kansas City.

By 1941, partly because nepotism in The Forum organization limited his prospects for further promotion, he had also decided that he wanted to begin his own cafeteria chain.

The first corporate group put the second Piccadilly Cafeteria into operation in Beaumont, Texas, in October of 1946, under the management of Frank Emmer, who would later become Piccadilly's first district manager.

The next year, a Memphis corporation was chartered to open a new unit in that city. It started up in 1948, under the management of Meredith Curtis, assisted by Phil Listen, an old Navy friend of Bill Richards.

After 1956, thanks to the great success of a unit located in the Gulfgate Shopping Center in Houston, the company elected to locate new cafeterias in the proliferating suburban malls located in or near larger southern and southwestern cities.

In 1971, Hamilton met his personal goal of developing a 40-unit cafeteria chain, when, on November 27, the 40th Piccadilly Cafeteria opened its doors at the South DeKalb Mall in Decatur, Georgia.

Corporate restructuring was completed in 1979, when Piccadilly went public.

At the time of Hamilton's death in 1981, the 40 units of his original dream had doubled to 80.

Further, the company reopened the door to partial employee ownership in 1987, when it adopted a stock purchase plan allowing employees to buy up to 1,500 shares of common stock annually.

In December of 1988, Piccadilly purchased six Ralph and Kacoo's restaurants, some properties, and all shares of the common stock of Cajun Bayou Distributors and Management, Inc., for barely more than $38 million.

In 1992, with the approval of the board of directors, Julia Hamilton induced Bennett to return to Piccadilly as CEO.

But the rise was short-lived, and in 1994 Bennett resigned when further implementation of his five-year, $65 million makeover plan was blocked by his board of directors.

On October 1, 1996, the company also raised its prices to offset the rising cost of food and the impact of the minimum wage increase.

In 2003, the company was purchased by Yucaipa Companies and Diversified Investment Management Group.

Piccadilly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2012.