CraftWorks Restaurants & Breweries Inc., which owns 96 Old Chicago resturantes along with The Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch brewpub chains has spent about $10 million so far to “refresh” its Old Chicago restaurant concept and has said that the two brewpub chains could be up next for an upgrade.
CraftWorks came about in 2010 when the locally based Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc., which operated restaurants including Old Chicago, ChopHouse and Rock Bottom, grew too constrained financially to continue growing the operation.
Later that year, New York private equity firm Centerbridge Capital Partners L.P. acquired Louisville-based Rock Bottom and Tennessee-based Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Group and combined the two as CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries.