The closing of the entire Cooker Restaurant chain Wednesday has left several Ohio State students unemployed.

“It’s frustrating because they didn’t give us any warning,” said Ryan Williams, a senior in computer science engineering and an employee at the restaurant on West Lane Avenue.

The Cooker Restaurant chain was established in Nashville, Tenn., before moving its headquarters to Columbus in the 1980s. The chain expanded to include several other Ohio locations, such as Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo. It later built locations in Michigan and seven other states.

According to local media, after taking a shot at expanding its offices in Florida failed, the company went bankrupt in 2001. The company could not compete in the market nor recover from its losses, which ultimately forced the chain to close its doors.

The closing resulted in 300 Central Ohio unemployed restaurant workers – including the 75 full- and part-time workers at the restaurants located in Dublin and on Morse Road, South Hamilton Road and West Lane Avenue.

“I’m waiting until summer to find another job. The money will be tight for the next month,” said Brian Javorsky, a second-year graduate student in pharmaceutical sciences and another employee at the West Lane Avenue location.

Cooker’s corporation is planning on selling the rest of its properties to cover the bankruptcy, Javorsky said.

The Cooker restaurant property located on West Lane Avenue is owned by OSU.

Cooker Restaurant is still under lease with OSU and has the same obligations of paying rent, said Anne Lenzotti, director of Real Estate and Property Management at OSU. OSU was not informed of the closing before it happened and is still waiting to talk to Cooker, she said.

Because of the chain’s bankruptcy, employees said they could not cash their last paycheck.

“I didn’t even pick up my last paycheck,” Williams said.

Other students were not bothered that they did not receive their last paycheck.

“To me, it wasn’t a big deal because I was a waiter and made $2.13 an hour,” Javorsky said. “I feel bad for the cooks and managers that got $800 paychecks.”

Students and other employees said they are still waiting for word from the company to see if they will ever be able to cash their last paychecks.