RETAILING : Trans/Pacific Sells 9 Jolly Rogers to Marriott Corp. in Debt-Cutting Move

Marriott Corp. has agreed to buy nine Jolly Roger restaurants--including three in Orange County--from Trans/Pacific Restaurants Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

The restaurants will keep the Jolly Roger name for the immediate future. But Marriott plans eventually to convert them to the chain’s new family restaurant--Allie’s--said Richard Sneed, Marriott’s manager of public relations.

Irvine-based Trans/Pacific is selling the Jolly Rogers to raise cash to help pay off debt incurred in a management-led leveraged buyout in 1986. Proceeds from the sale will enable Trans/Pacific to reduce its debt “to a very manageable level,” said Ron Higgins, majority owner and president.

After the sale, Trans/Pacific will own six Jolly Roger and 41 Monterey Bay Canners restaurants in California and Hawaii.

In addition to the Jolly Rogers in Buena Park, Irvine and Lake Forest, Marriott is acquiring restaurants in City of Industry, Solana Beach, Northridge, El Segundo, Palos Verdes and Bakersfield.

Marriott now has 15 Allie’s restaurants, all in San Diego.

The restaurants feature salad and breakfast bars, as well as varied entrees, such as chicken or steak fajitas, meat loaf, and chicken pot pie.

The purchase will allow Marriott “to beef up our California presence,” Sneed said.

The Marriott Family Restaurants division operates more than 460 family restaurants under various concepts in 24 states. Marriott also owns and franchises more than 600 Roy Rogers Restaurants, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states.