Fazoli’s Restaurants Gone from the U.P.

A national chain of Italian restaurants has disappeared from the central U.P. without warning or explanation.

There used to be a Fazoli’s restaurant on Lincoln Road in Escanaba and another on US-41 in Marquette, but both restaurants have gone out of business.

The Escanaba location closed 2 weeks ago, and the Marquette restaurant has just gone dark as well.

Both closings came as a surprise.

In fact, some of us at UGN News actually got lunch at the Marquette Fazoli’s yesterday, not knowing at the time that it would be the last day.

George Niemi owned both restaurants.

He says he’s had some preliminary inquiries from people interested in buying the Marquette establishment, but nothing’s gone beyond a few phone calls yet.

The Marquette store had been in business since October 2001.

Now that the Marquette and Escanaba stores are both gone, the nearest remaining Fazoli’s are in Traverse City and Green Bay.