Boccie and Saladalley will close

Boccie and Saladalley, two popular campus restaurants located in The Warehouse at 4040 Locust Street, will close Sunday after the company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday. "I did everything I could for as long as I could to avoid taking this step, when I ran out of alternatives," Boccie/Saladalley President Mike Cullina said last night. Cullina said the two co-owned restaurants have been struggling and carrying debts from unsuccessful expansion in the mid-1980s. "In the last two years, there has been a significant downfall in business, both in downtown Philadelphia and at Penn," Cullina said. Saladalley locations in Ardmore and at Temple University will continue to operate. Cullina said he is "very sad" about the impending closing of the restaurants, which have played a part in campus life for 15 years. "I appreciate the patronage of the Penn community for all these years," he said. "I'm sorry it can't go on." Cullina said the fate of the restaurants' space at 4040 Locust Street will be determined by the landlord, who he said is "from Hong Kong" and is unaffiliated with the University. Many Boccie and Saladalley employees expressed surprise about the impending closing, which was announced to some employees for the first time yesterday. Boccie and Saladalley shift manager William Moore said he got a call on his answering machine telling him that as of Sunday, he would be out of a job. Moore said he had been optimistic, hoping the dwindling business would pick up after the winter. "There was talk about closing, but I didn't think it was going to happen so soon," Moore said. "It sort of came as a shock to everyone." "I'm unemployed," College senior and Saladalley employee Marty Newburger said despondently. Cullina said all employees' wages will be paid in full. The restaurants' immediate neighbors also voiced disappointment with the announcement. "Unfortunately, I've heard they've had to go under," Video Library Manager Jennifer Weinik said. "I wasn't completely surprised, because I knew they were having trouble." Weinik said the restaurants helped her business, and the video store helped theirs. "We both pull from each other," she said of the restaurants' proximity. "It certainly hasn't hurt."

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