Hamburger Hamlet Goes Public With Stock Offer

Hamburger Hamlet Restaurants Inc., struggling under debt from its $29-million leveraged buyout by an investment banking firm in 1988, went public last week in a stock offering that raised about $28 million.

The Sherman Oaks-based restaurant chain, which operates 25 restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, hopes to use the proceeds to help pay off the $27.9 million in remaining debt from the buyout by Weatherly Private Capital Inc.

Hamburger Hamlet has posted total losses of more than $3 million since it was acquired.

In the nine months that ended Sept. 29, the chain lost $233,000 on revenues of $39.5 million.

Hamburger Hamlets Inc. was founded in 1950 by Harry and Marilyn Lewis, whose restaurants were known for their gourmet hamburgers and interiors featuring red imitation-leather booths and dark-wood paneling.

But the chain, which originally went public in 1969, ran into some trouble in the late 1980s when it embarked on an $8-million expansion that saw the opening of four tonier versions of the standard Hamlets.