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After months of searching for a buyer, the owners of Gray Brothers Cafeteria in Mooresville plan to close their flagship restaurant on Sunday, June 8.
The Gray family on Monday said it would close the homestyle food fixture at 555 S. Indiana St., but still hopes to find a new location. Gray Brothers, now in its third generation of ownership, has been in operation since 1944 and in its current home since 1979.
Gray Brothers has been featured on numerous TV shows, including Travel Channel’s “Man v. Food,” as a bastion of Midwestern comfort food. Many of its offerings, such as its fried chicken and pies, are regularly considered among the best to be found in central Indiana, based on consumer surveys and media reviews.
“While the Gray family had previously hoped to continue business at the Mooresville location, it is no longer a feasible financial option,” the family’s statement says. “Like many others in the industry, it has become increasingly challenging over the past five years to run a sit-down restaurant. Inflation, the cost of ingredients and the change in the food industry landscape put an unrecoverable financial strain on the cafeteria in Mooresville.”
The family listed the 22,647-square-foot building for $10 million in February through Greenwood-based brokerage Your Home Team. At the time, owner Jason Gray said he expected the cafeteria to keep operating until the property was sold, in hopes of finding a new spot during that period. In early May, the price was reduced to $7.6 million.
The Grays said the search for a new location will continue, allowing the restaurant to reopen in another spot “if it’s a good business decision.” Several parties have expressed interest in buying the cafeteria property, but there’s so far been no deal struck to sell off the acreage.
The Mooresville location will be open its normal hours of 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, its final day of business.
In October 2023, Gray Brothers announced it planned to begin offering franchise licenses for new carryout locations in Indiana and other parts of the Midwest. At the time, Jason Gray told IBJ the “cafeteria costs us a fortune” to operate, indicating that changes could be coming to the company’s business model.
The carryout franchises are being marketed at anywhere from nearly $400,000 to more than $700,000 to launch, including an initial $35,000 franchise fee. That estimate from the company also includes construction costs, equipment and supplies, signage, attorney fees, fixtures, real estate costs and travel expenses for training.
Gray Brothers launched its own carryout location, Gray Brothers Cafeteria Baked Goods To Go, in Avon last year, ahead of Thanksgiving.
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What business decision was made to shut down a property you own to find a new location? Something is fishy.
Nothing “fishy”….they have realized they no longer can support that much space. To heat, maintain, pay property taxes, etc is overhead that needs to be cut. Turning owned real estate into cash to open a smaller location makes good business sense to me. Best of luck Gray family!! And thank you for hanging in and trying to make it work.
Just guessing, but maybe they borrowed against it and the payments are too big.?
They do serve fish
What they won’t tell you is they have changed many of their ingredients and recipes and the quality of food has gone to crap! Meets have changed, vegetables have changed, the gravy’s have changed twice in a year per staff! Many items were removed from the menu.
They changed first and their customers responded! Such a shame!
Spot on, David B.
Still chuckling about asking 10mm for a building worth maybe $900k at best
Was just the cherry on top of the way they ran the family business into the ground. Times changed, they didn’t have a clue how to keep up.
Their food and quality had really gone down hill for many years.
I had not eaten there in many years, but my memory of all three meals is that the food was superb. Management and committed ownership are the lifeblood of businesses and almost all have finite lifespans. I just wonder how much the changes to 37 and 69 hastened their demise – progress marches on. (and yes, $10 million was pretty hopeful)
The debt service alone on the loan required to buy this business is suffocating. If the business is struggling to break even now, that debt load would wipe out any chance to make it work.