Owner cites slow business, labor dispute as reasoning
Tallulah – Rumors spread quickly through Graham County last week, when word leaked out that the Huddle House on Tallulah Road closed its doors for good Sept. 3.
Owner Roger Kersch granted The Graham Star an exclusive interview Sept. 5. He explained the series of events that led to the closure of the popular restaurant chain, which has more than 300 locations across the Southeast.
“It’s about location. Too much store, not enough sales,” he said. “That’s the bottom line, but it’s also exacerbated by the labor.”
Kersch was referencing an incident that occurred on the evening of Aug. 30, when workers staged a walkout and left the restaurant unmanned. It took Graham County Sheriff’s officials finding him the next morning to tell him the Huddle House was unlocked and no one was inside for the owner to start piecing together what had transpired the night before.
“Discipline broke down,” Kersch said. “I had to fire someone (earlier in the week) because they were doing meth. I had someone quit because they were a cook and I told them they had to wear a beard net. Huddle House came by and gave us a couple of bad reports, and my manager didn’t want to take any responsibility for it.
“Everybody walked out, and my manager didn’t discourage them. I didn’t find out about it until 9:30 the next morning.”
Kersch attempted to run the establishment with two “loyal” employees on a limited-hours basis – from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. – but that idea was swiftly eliminated.
“We were just trying to figure out if we were going to stay open,” he said. “That was just an interim operation.”
Finances also played a large role in Kersch’s decision to shut down the Huddle House, especially after Kersch consulted with trustees about the fiscal situation.
“I told them we had $20,000 in debts, and I was asking them for more money,” Kersch said. “They told me, ‘That’s it. No more.’ “
As owner of the Huddle House for 10 years, Kersch worked for the better part of the decade to clean up the “bad reputation” the restaurant had, which included drug use and theft – not to mention, communication between owner and operator fell apart.
“The operator would not replace equipment when it would break down; he would buy something really cheap,” Kersch said. “He put a household water heater in there; I put a $4,000 water heater in there.
“How do you incentivize managing losses versus making money? All I’ve done is spend money on it.”
Kersch said there are no plans to reopen the Huddle House. He has already begun the process of selling the inventory and equipment inside the restaurant.
“It’s just not in a viable location,” he said. “If it was in the middle of town, it would work. But people have to go out of their way to come out there, and you can’t overcome that.”