'I Have 2 Children': Westborough D'Angelo's Among Many Closed

WESTBOROUGH, MA—Amanda Gosselin managed the D'Angelo Grilled Sandwich shop on Route 9 in Westborough. On vacation last week, she was scheduled to return to work on Monday. On Sunday, she started getting bombarded with texts from her staff.

Gosselin had worked at the location for nearly three years, and usually worked more than 55 hours, six days a week.

"They were saying that a guy came in the store and started hanging signs, and said the store was permanently closing," said Gosselin. "They had gone in at 9:30 a.m. to get the store ready and the guy came in at 11:30 a.m. He told them to clean up and go home, that the store was done."

The Westborough employees weren't alone. On Sunday morning, startled employees and pizza lovers were shocked to learn that Papa Gino's, and also D'Angelo Grilled Sandwiches, abruptly closed dozens of its shops across New England overnight.

Social media and signs on businesses indicated several Massachusetts locations had closed on Sunday.

In total, 68 Massachusetts restaurants were closed according to court reports.

"The company made the difficult decision to close 95 restaurants – 178 restaurants remain open and are thriving," spokesperson Rick Wilner told Patch on Monday.

A day after dozens of stores abruptly closed, Papa Gino's Pizza filed for bankruptcy and announced that its parent company has been sold.

On Monday, the parent company, Papa Gino's Holdings Corporation, which also owns D'Angelo's Grilled Sandwiches restaurants, announced it had been sold to a Wynnchurch Capital portfolio company, only a day after shuttering 95 locations around the region.

"We regret having to abruptly close the restaurants without notice but were unable to share information until the proposed sale transaction was finalized," said Chief Financial Officer Corey Wendland.

Gosselin said that after getting word from her staff, she texted her boss, who told her he felt badly telling her about the closing that way. If she, or staff, wanted to, they could reapply online for other openings, he said.

"We had no clue this was happening," Gosselin told Patch. "We were in the process of hiring for the store and getting more managers. My team is as hurt and confused by this as am I. I put in a new application and got a rejection letter, then got told that I could reapply in the future. I asked my former boss about it and he said it was a glitch. I have two children and am now trying to figure out what to do for Christmas. It is just heartbreaking."

Photo Credit: Charlene Arsenault