LEONARDTOWN — The Red Robin on Abell House Lane in California is about to stop being a company-owned restaurant, but the people who run it say diners should not expect to see a difference.
The St. Mary’s County Alcohol Beverage Board voted unanimously Nov. 12 to conditionally approve the transfer of the restaurant’s Class B beer, wine and liquor license from Red Robin’s corporate entity to OP Burgers Maryland LLC, part of the franchise operator Opportunity Restaurant Group. The approval is good for 90 days while the buyer finishes a short list of requirements.
The attorney for the applicants told the board the California restaurant is the last of eight Maryland Red Robins the group is acquiring to come up for a license hearing. She said the general manager, Tara Tucker, who has worked for Red Robin for 16 years, will stay on, as will the license’s local resident licensee, Joseph Densford, who has been on it since the restaurant opened.
“When you walk into the restaurant” after closing, the attorney said, “you will not know as a customer that anything has changed hands.”
The restaurant has 38 employees, 16 of whom sell or serve alcohol, she said. It has had no alcohol violations since it opened. She attributed that record in part to a policy of carding every customer and refusing vertical IDs, the format Maryland issues to people under 21.
Part of a national sell-off
The change in St. Mary’s County is one small piece of a much larger deal. Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. announced in June that it would sell company-owned restaurants to franchise operators to pay down debt under what it calls its “First Choice” plan. Trade publication Restaurant Dive reported that Op Burgers agreed to buy 69 restaurants in eight states, including Maryland, for $62.5 million.
Most of those sales have closed. The final eight are expected to be completed by the end of Red Robin’s 2026 fiscal year, according to Verdict Foodservice. The Daily Record reported in October that the Maryland restaurants in the purchase include those in Waldorf, Bowie, Germantown, Towson, Owings Mills and Columbia along with California.
Charles County’s liquor board handled the same transfer for the Waldorf location last month, as the Chronicle reported.
Conditions before the transfer is final
The St. Mary’s approval depends on four items: a personal property tax clearance, State Fire Marshal approval, a use and occupancy or change-of-ownership permit, and a finalized lease.
The attorney said the tax clearance is held up at the state level. Red Robin filed its return on time, she said, but the state has not processed it for these locations, so the company must request a manual assessment before the county can issue a bill and the clearance can follow. The lease will be finalized when the sale closes.
Board members asked no questions about the operation. The board’s regular attorney sat out the matter because of a conflict, and substitute counsel joined by phone.
In other business, the board gave The Creek another 90-day extension of its conditionally approved license. The applicants said construction is moving again after one of them recovered from a health problem.
