Not Your Average Joe's Closes 4 Massachusetts Restaurants For The Winter

MILTON (CBS) -- Not Your Average Joe's, a chain restaurant based in Milton, has closed four Massachusetts restaurants for the winter, a company executive tells WBZ-TV. Locations in Arlington, Burlington, Methuen and Randolph were in the process of shutting down on Monday.

A total of 96 employees in Massachusetts are being furloughed. Not Your Average Joe's Chief Financial Officer Joe McGuire said the shuttered restaurants will hopefully reopen, depending on customer behavior and the performance of their other restaurants.

Not Your Average Joe's has locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. A restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland is also closing for the season.

The Patriot Ledger reports that the company received $5.9 million from the Paycheck Protection Program to use on payroll. McGuire said that and patio dining helped, but staying open during the winter is more challenging, and the company decided to temporarily close locations with the lowest sales.

The pandemic has taken a devastating toll on the restaurant industry. Massachusetts is allowing restaurants to offer indoor dining at just 25% capacity as coronavirus cases surge in the state.

Back in November, the Ninety-Nine permanently closed its restaurants in Braintree and West Concord.

Not Your Average Joe's began in Dartmouth in 1994.