The Bennigan’s Grill & Tavern chain? Uh-oh:

Customers showing up for lunch at Bennigan’s restaurants in Chicago and across the country found quite a surprise Tuesday morning, when all the corporate-owned locations had signs on display reading “closed for business”…

Bennigan’s Grill and Tavern closed all of its corporate-owned locations nationwide after filing for bankruptcy. Independent franchises remain open for business as usual.

Managers said the mass-shutdown went into effect at midnight Monday night, and there was no warning.

At Bennigan’s Metairie location, an employee named Tanisha confirmed the bad news, but said that all Louisiana locations were open for business as usual; they’re all franchises. Hurray: The Kilkenny Country Chicken Salad has been saved — along with a lot of Louisiana jobs.

(Bennigan’s seems to have taken down its website already. The franchisees may want to have a word with corporate about that.)