A BRANCH of a popular family restaurant has closed as rumours swirl about the major franchise that's set to take its place.
The Doncaster location of Frankie and Benny's shut its doors on Saturday after a staff member first broke the news on social media.
A spokesman for The Restaurant Group, which sold off some of the brand's franchises earlier this year, confirmed the closure.
“We announced a review of our leisure estate in March and made the difficult decision to exit some of our sites," he said in a statement.
"We are working closely with our impacted teams and will look to redeploy colleagues to neighbouring sites across our wider estate wherever possible.”
A staff member previously explained the shock news in a Facebook post.
"I work as the kitchen manager at Frankie and Benny's in Doncaster," they wrote.
"Food prices in the last 12 months have gone crazy - oil alone has gone up by 80 pence per litre and on average about 18 per cent across the board.
"We close the doors for the last time on the 21 October - as it's closing down."
The Restaurant Group (TRG), which owns Frankie and Benny's, recently paid arch-rivals Big Table £7.5million to take over the chain.
Forty other branches of Frankie and Benny's have closed over the past year after lockdown and inflation hit the chain hard.
Rumours are now swirling on social media that the Doncaster branch will be replaced by a Wagamama outlet - another TRG brand.
One man said: "I do work for Wagamama. I can confirm it is going to be one. Work starts early next year."
Another said: "Will be Wagamama there soon, that’s the reason for closing down.
A third said: "Gunna be a Wagamama."
The Restaurant Group said: "“We announced a review of our Leisure estate in March and made the difficult decision to exit some of our sites.
"We are working closely with our impacted teams and will look to redeploy colleagues to neighbouring sites across our wider estate wherever possible."
It comes after Wilko staff broke down in tears and thanked loyal shoppers as their store closed down after 26 years.
