Garduños Topples Into Chapter 11

Bruce sends sad news from Albuquerque. Even popularity isn’t enough to rescue one from embezzlement.:

After 40 years doing business in Albuquerque, the owner of one of the city’s most popular restaurants is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

ALBUQUERQUE - Dave Garduno, the founder and CEO of Garduno’s restaurants, says that he’s made arrangements to pay over a million dollars in back taxes to the state within a year.

Effective on Monday, three of the five Garduno’s restaurants in Albuquerque have closed their doors – the restaurants on Academy, Montgomery and North Fourth Street. About 100 people will lose their jobs, roughly half of the Garduno’s work force.

“The difficulty has been the domino effect,” Garduno said on Monday. “When one thing spirals wrong, it just keeps going and we get to the point where we have to use the law to reorganize.”

Garduno blames the sour economy and a former employee accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of thousands of dollars for the chain’s troubles.

The locations at the Cottonwood and Winrock malls will remain open, as will the two Graduno’s franchises in Las Vegas, Nevada.