Colorado owner of Village Inn and Baker's Square gobbles up another chain

A Denver-based restaurant operator is adding some burgers to its pie-centric portfolio for a cool $27.5 million. American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC, which last year acquired the Village Inn and Baker's Square restaurant chains, last week bought the Ohio-based Max & Erma's out of bankruptcy...

By Jessica Chapman

August 23, 2010

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A Denver-based restaurant operator is adding some burgers to its pie-centric portfolio for a cool $27.5 million. American Blue Ribbon Holdings LLC, which last year acquired the Village Inn and Baker's Square restaurant chains, last week bought the Ohio-based Max & Erma's out of bankruptcy.

Max & Erma's, which has 87 locations centered in Michigan and Ohio, a smattering in surrounding states, one outlier in South Dakota, and zero stores in Colorado, has a menu rife with burgers and potato skins, not unlike its new siblings. The most noticeable difference comes in the pie department. Unlike Village Inn and Baker's Square, both well-known pie pushers, the Max & Erma's menu does not feature a single slice of pie.

American Blue Ribbon also owns Legendary Baking, the company that makes all the pies for Village Inn and Baker's Square, which Village Inn had bought out before American took it over. There are two dozen Village Inn restaurants in Colorado (the legendary Cherry Creek location is now Toast), but no Baker's Square locations here.

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