When the Ziggie's Café in downtown Springfield closed after six months in business, it marked the latest in a series of ups and downs for the Springfield-based eatery chain.
Ziggie's Sidewalk Café and Pub opened in June at 319 W. Walnut St. and was closed in December. Scott and Stacy Bussard ran the restaurant under their SBSB Downtown Café LLC. Scott Bussard said the economy is the main cause for his store's closing, with monthly losses exceeding $10,000. They had hung hopes on the bar business, he said.
Patricia Gott, owner of Springfield Tool and Die Co., which leased the downtown space to the Bussards, said that while she was disappointed that the business didn't work out, she understands the difficulties that go with opening a new restaurant. Her son, Shawn Gott, had operated Bailey's American Grille in the Walnut Street space until it closed in January 2009.
"A lot of people want to open a restaurant. But until they've done it, they don't really know what's involved," Patricia Gott said. "It takes someone being there all the time, and if you can't find those people, it has to be you."
All Ziggie's locations are privately owned franchises, Bussard said, and he still holds the rights to downtown Springfield.
Company founder Agim Zendeli operates the original location on South Campbell and the restaurant at 1324 W. Kearney St. through LZLZ Enterprises LLC, according to Missouri Secretary of State filings. LZLZ Enterprises and Ziggie's corporate offices are at 2009 W. Woodland St., filings show.
The regional chain had experienced rapid expansion. When the downtown Springfield location opened, it was the 14th in the chain.
But several locations - including those in Ozark, Joplin, Carthage, Nevada and Fort Scott, Kan. - have closed in recent months. Ziggie's Web site now lists nine locations: four in Springfield and one each in Republic, Nixa, Marshfield, Rolla and West Plains.
Not all of the closings have been as amicable as the one in downtown Springfield.
The Ziggie's in Pittsburg, Kan., closed in November, just three months after opening under a lease with Agim Zendeli, said landlord Joe Kim. Kim said the restaurant was later operated by Faisal Khan, who is associated with a Ziggie's Café in Nixa.
Kim said he stopped by the 2771 N. Broadway building in mid-November to collect a late rent check when he discovered a disturbing sight: two moving trucks being loaded with numerous items from inside his building, including some of the kitchen equipment that he owned. According to the Pittsburg Police Department, officers arrived to mediate the conflict but no police report was filed.
Mere weeks before opening the Pittsburg restaurant, Khan had similarly closed a restaurant inside Joplin's La Quinta Inn, said hotel owner A.J. Nursariwala.
Nursariwala said he stopped by the Ziggie's inside his hotel in June and found several men carrying items out of his building.
Kim said he has filed suit in Crawford County (Kansas) District Court to recover the remaining value of the lease. Kim said Zendeli had a personal guarantee on the lease, but the exact amount he's pursuing is yet to be determined.
SBJ Publishing reporters in Springfield and Joplin left phone and e-mail messages for Ziggie's owner Zendeli, but none were returned by press time.
Khan, who declined to speak on the record to Joplin Tri-State Business Journal, also is connected to a lease for a Ziggie's in Carthage. Vince Scott, owner of the building at 1926 S. Garrison Ave., said Khan closed the restaurant seven months into a three-year lease reached in 2008.
According to state corporation filings, Khan also is connected to the Nixa Ziggie's, which remains open at 911 N. Kenneth. Khan is the registered agent of Gjirokaster LLC and Quality Foods Enterprise LLC, and both list the same North Kenneth address as their offices.
The company's site, www.ziggiescafe.com, allows interested franchisees to request information and also solicits new locations with a "request a Ziggie's Café" form page.
Springfield landlord Gott said she didn't experience any problems with her tenant's exit - nothing was taken or damaged at the restaurant.
"No big equipment or anything important as far as making it (presentable) was gone," she said. "(Bussard) is not that kind of person."
The challenge now is settling on terms of the one-year lease that the Bussards cut short.
"I'm sure that we'll come to an agreement with the lease," she said, adding that the family is considering occupying the space again. "I'm just not a hard-core landlord. I'm not in the business of just renting buildings."
A trio of brothers own Southway Storage LLC, which opened Oct. 7 and has 289 units to serve customers in Ozark, Nixa, Springfield and elsewhere in southwest Missouri.
