‘Now what?’: Pittsburgh-area restaurant shuts down abruptly, shocking employees

MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. — Employees at the Bravo restaurant in Mount Lebanon’s Galleria Mall say they found out abruptly that the location is permanently closed.

Genevieve McClain is still in disbelief after what unfolded Tuesday, when her manager messaged employees about an impromptu meeting.

“We just got bought out in January, so maybe they just want to come, and they’re going around to the different restaurants. There’s five Bravo’s in the Pittsburgh area, so we were like, ‘OK,’” McClain said.

Because McClain has another job, she wasn’t able to be at Tuesday’s meeting but quickly found out what it was about.

“And then I got a message from my manager about 10:30 yesterday morning, maybe a little later, and she was just like, ‘Effective immediately, we’re closed,’” McClain said.

McClain has worked at the Mount Lebanon location for nine years, and says the restaurant was consistently told it was a market leader, so she doesn’t know what prompted the closure.

“Shocking, I think that’s the best word. A little unnerving, because now what?” McClain said.

She says the nearly 30 employees at the Mount Lebanon location have been given the option to work at one of the four other locations in the Pittsburgh region that remain open.

“The one girl I talked to was like, ‘I might look into Robinson because she lives close to there,’” McClain said. “That’s probably what I’ll look into, but I don’t know what availability there is for us, and they have their own staff to worry about as well.”

Channel 11 reached out to Bravo and the Galleria for comment and specifics on why the Mount Lebanon Bravo is closed but did not hear back in time.

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