Authorized Sea Food items restaurant chain marketed to PPX Hospitality

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston-primarily based cafe chain Lawful Sea Foods has been bought, Legal’s main govt claimed Tuesday.

Legal’s 25 destinations will now be operated by Boston-based mostly PPX Hospitality Brand names, which owns the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse dining establishments and Strega Italian eating places, according to a statement.

“It’s a bit of blended thoughts,” Authorized President and CEO Roger Berkowitz informed Boston.com. “It was a loved ones enterprise — significantly a family organization that deals directly with the community. One particular of the excellent factors, I suppose, about the cafe business enterprise in common is that you appear in speak to with so quite a few men and women from so numerous walks of lifestyle.”

Berkowitz will retain ownership legal rights of the Legal Sea Food items identify for the company’s e-commerce and retail organization.

The initial Authorized Sea Food items cafe opened in 1968 upcoming to a fish market place that Berkowitz’s father, George Berkowitz, opened in 1950. Although most of its restaurants are in Massachusetts, the corporation has expanded into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington D.C.

The coronavirus pandemic has been stressful, Berkowitz claimed.

“Would I have ordinarily decided on to market?” he claimed. “Probably not.”

Economic conditions of the deal the place not disclosed.