Officials with Denny’s Restaurant are working to reopen the Muskogee restaurant along U.S. 69, a corporate spokesman said Monday.

The front door was chained and padlocked. A sign, taped inside the glass door, said the restaurant was closed until further notice. A second sign, taped outside the door, redirected people to a competing restaurant.

Denny’s corporate spokesman Robert A. Gonzalez of Hill & Knowlton, said the franchisee for the Muskogee restaurant, located at 635 S. 32nd St., has “personal business issues.”

“We are working on getting another franchisee,” he said.

The Muskogee Denny’s opened in 1989 and at first hired 45 people. A 1989 story in The Phoenix said the restaurant opened in what used to be the Plain and Fancy Restaurant. Then Denny’s remodeled the restaurant to accommodate 120 people at a counter, booths and tables.

The Denny’s chain opened around 1954 in California and since has grown to 1,546 restaurants across the United States. With systemwide sales of more than $2 billion, the chain calls itself the “largest full-service family restaurant chain in the United States, according to the corporate Web site.

Nationally, the chain ended 2007 with systemwide sales of $2.4 billion and average-unit sales of $1.72 million for company operated restaurants. The chain has about 21,000 employees.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email