A Seafood Chain From The 1970s Only Has 3 Locations Left And The Reason Couldn't Be Clearer

Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips was once a national name. In 1979 the chain counted 826 restaurants across the United States, but public filings and local news reports show that by April 2025 only three stand-alone outlets remain — a numerical drop of more than 99%. All three surviving stores are in the Cleveland, Ohio area. The long-running shop, in Cuyahoga Falls, never closed its doors, while the Garfield Heights location reopened in February 2023 after new owners refurbished the site. And, despite the fact restaurant chains are struggling across the country, Arthur Treacher's even opened up a brand new location in April 2025 — in a Cleveland Heights building it once occupied decades before.

Locals keep these restaurants busy as they serve the classic fish & chips, thick-cut fries, and hush puppies that many customers remember from their childhood. While the chain's days of coast-to-coast expansion are over, the Ohio store trio proves that a focused menu, and loyal customer, base can keep a retro franchise alive in 2025.

During the 1975-76 Cod War between Iceland and Britain, export limits pushed the wholesale cost of Icelandic cod — the fish Arthur Treacher's built its menu around — to nearly double its early-1970s price. Kiplinger notes that the spike hit just as the chain was paying for rapid expansion, squeezing profits overnight. To keep spending in check, the chain's owner swapped pricier cod for cheaper pollock. Franchisees said the switch hurt quality and, in some cases, sales. In fact, a 1982 federal case details how operators accused the company's headquarters of forcing inferior products on them — and stopped paying their royalties in protest. Unfortunately, the brand's parent company spent already scarce funds on legal battles instead of kitchen upgrades or fresh décor, and every round of litigation added to the brand's outstanding debt. 

This kind of menu misstep isn't unique — other chains like Burger King's many recalls and even McDonald's failed menu item launches have similarly hurt a brand's public image — the prolonged nature of this particular misstep spelled the brand's doom. In fact, the fish dispute piled onto other problems like short supplies, falling customer traffic, and mounting lease obligations — all of which pushed the company through ownership changes and Chapter 11. What began as a temporary fix for high cod prices instead ended up draining all momentum from the brand for decades.

Orange-co, the company that initially drove Arthur Treacher's 1970s growth, funded new stores with sale-leaseback deals. Essentially, it sold each site to outside investors, then signed long leases that Orange-co had to keep paying for — even if the restaurant failed. When cod prices increased and sales reduced, those guaranteed rents then became a dead weight. As the Lakeland Ledger reported at the time, the unpaid lease obligations had ballooned to roughly $61 million. While Orange-co unloaded the chain to Mrs. Paul's Seafood in 1979, the lease debt stayed on the books — setting the stage for more financial stress.

Mrs. Paul's Seafood tried to steady the ship before passing off Arthur Treacher's to Lumara Foods in March 1982. However, just four months after taking possession, Lumara filed for Chapter 11 protection in order to keep stores open while renegotiating debts — a move spelled out in federal bankruptcy filings from the Northern District of Ohio. A second Chapter 11 case followed in 1983 after yet another investor group stepped in, showing that quick ownership flips did little to solve the underlying cash crunch.