Ninety-Nine Restaurant and Pub
Ninety-Nine Restaurant and Pub is a CASUAL dining restaurant in the Northeastern United States, based in Woburn, Massachusetts outside Boston. Most of the chain's locations are in New England with clusters in the areas of Albany, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as well as several other locations in New York State.
Ninety-Nine was founded in 1952 when Charlie Doe opened a pub at 99 State Street in Boston. Unlike other pubs, Ninety-Nine was one of the pioneers of The Casual dining concept many years before it became commonplace. In 1962, the restaurant left Boston and moved its main location to Woburn which still stands today. Over the next several decades, the chain expanded throughout Massachusetts as well as the Providence, Rhode Island and Manchester, New Hampshire areas. The chain became known for its varied menu which goes from typical pub fare as hamburgers to steaks and even rare fish specialities as well as its "splatter" approach of decor which is customized to the location of the restaurant (a technique since adopted by similar restaurants as Applebees.
In 1993, Charlie Doe retired from the company and his son, Charles Jr. took the reins of the company. It was under the younger Doe that Ninety-Nine expanded elsewhere in New England by opening stores in western Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine. In 2002, the chain announced it was planning to expand outside of New England by opening two locations in the suburbs of Albany, New York. Shortly after this announcement, on October 28, 2002, Ninety-Nine was sold to Tennessee-based O'Charley's for $160 million. Charlie Doe would spend his retirement as a philanthropist before dying at age 79 on April 9, 2006. 1
Under O'Charley's ownership, Ninety-Nine has drawn a greater plan for expansion while keeping the quality and standards it has been known for. The expansion into the Albany market becamse successful with more locations opening in that area and some opening elsewhere in New York. In 2005, Ninety-Nine expanded into the Philadelphia area and has been successful there to date.