Beef-a-Roo lays off workers across seven states amid payroll delays

Beef-a-Roo laid off workers across seven states on July 7 as payroll delays and store closures deepened into a wider breakdown, cutting employees in Illinois, Indiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas and Texas. The layoffs also reached the leadership team, including vice president Jeremy Wise, while corporately owned stores across the country were closed.

In an email from human resources, the company said it was still trying to secure funds for remaining payroll obligations and would issue final paychecks as soon as it could. For restaurant workers, that kind of delay is the difference between a bad week and a rent crisis. It also signals that a shutdown may be moving faster than managers can keep up with schedules, transfer talk or reassurance from above.

The warning signs had been building for months. In spring, Rockford-area Beef-a-Roo stores briefly closed after the company fell out of compliance with the Illinois Department of Revenue. Harlem School District 122 said Beef-a-Roo had failed to pay, or had bounced checks for, fundraiser proceeds at multiple schools. The brand then tried to reset its local image with a Beef-a-Roo Loves Rockford campaign in April that promised donations to Harlem schools and Rockford Public Schools after the fundraiser-payment dispute.

Trouble was not confined to northern Illinois. Workers in Springfield, Missouri, protested over delayed paychecks in late June. Employees in North Manchester, Indiana, voiced similar concerns on July 3, and workers in Joplin, Missouri, and Pittsburg, Kansas, also reported unpaid wages. By the time the July 7 layoffs hit, some closed locations were already posting signs that said closed until further notice, and the company’s website was down.

The chain’s footprint had stretched well beyond its Rockford roots, with 17 locations outside Rockford before the latest wave of closures. Beef-a-Roo was founded in Rockford in 1967 by Dave DeBruler and Jean Vitale, then acquired by Elysian Capital in 2019. The Freeport, Illinois, location remained independently owned and open during the crisis.

For workers trying to read the tea leaves at a shaky chain, the pattern was plain: missed pay, store restrictions, sudden closures and a leadership layoff usually mean the problem is no longer temporary. Under the federal WARN Act, qualifying mass layoffs or plant closings generally require 60 days’ notice, and Illinois has its own WARN reporting system, though not every layoff shows up there. Tom & Jerry’s moved quickly to recruit laid-off Beef-a-Roo workers, planning hiring days and already bringing on at least one former employee.