Pittsburgh-based Primanti Bros. closed its only two sandwich shops in Michigan on Tuesday.
The restaurant chain had expanded into Michigan less than a decade ago, the Detroit Free Press reported, before shuttering its shops in the state Tuesday with no explanation.
The Michigan locations in Taylor and Novi are no longer listed on the company’s website. There were no changes to Primanti’s locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia and Florida.
Employees and customers were stunned at the abrupt closures, the News-Herald reported.
The News-Herald said an employee at the Taylor location received a call Tuesday morning to notify her of the closures.
“We had no idea,” the unnamed employee told the News-Herald. “We’re like a little family here.”
When the location opened in 2016, The Oakland Press reported, there was “great fanfare,” with more than 100 people gathered outside the restaurant. The first 100 were given free sandwiches for a year.
The company had said it was catering its operations to accommodate demand from the area when it unveiled the Taylor eatery, The Oakland Press said.
Primanti Bros. launched during the Great Depression, with Joe Primanti operating a small sandwich cart in Pittsburgh’s Strip District in 1933, according to the company’s website.
The sandwich shop offers no explanation of the Michigan closures on its website or social media. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comments from the Tribune-Review, and several local news outlets in Michigan reported the company had not immediately responded to their inquiries.
Julia Felton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Julia by email at jfelton@triblive.com or via Twitter .