Pappan's Family Restaurants Inc., a Beaver County-based company that once included well-known restaurateur Lou Pappan's 38-location restaurant chain, has filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Pappan's son, Demetrios, serves as president of the Aliquippa company, formed in October 1973, according to Pennsylvania Department of State records. While technically still a corporation, Pappan's Family Restaurants hasn't owned assets for years, Demetrios Pappan said.
"This is just a winding down of the company, which I'm doing on the advice of my attorney," he said. "There really hasn't been any assets in the company for years."
Pappan said he is sole owner of the corporation, and that it and the bankruptcy filing have nothing to do with any other Pappan family member or company.
The Pappan's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing listed assets of $10,000 or less, liabilities between $100,001 and $1 million, and up to 49 creditors. Demetrios Pappan said there was perhaps one creditor.
The Pappan restaurant chain began in 1962 in a converted Beaver County candy store, and grew during the subsequent three decades to include Roy Rogers and Pappan's restaurants. Late Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor was at one time a Pappan's executive.
The family's primary business since the mid-1990s has been commercial and residential real estate development, in Western Pennsylvania and the Phoenix area through Fourway Properties LP. The limited partnership, formed in late 1992, was named for the quartet of Demetrios Pappan; Lou Pappan's other son, Spiro; his daughter, Vasiliki; and Lou Pappan himself.
