There are some stories you chase, and others that keep showing up on your plate whether you ordered them or not. Lately, MCL has been the latter. Locations are closing, answers are scarce, and a chain that’s unassumingly fed generations of Hoosiers now seems to be slipping away without much explanation.
Pardon my insistent coverage of MCL. I’m certainly interested in what’s going on with the longtime chain of cafeteria-style restaurants, but, frankly, these posts bring in all kinds of views! From a statistical standpoint, that helps me keep the lights on for esoteric deep-dives that no one else seems to care about.
Back in February, news broke that MCL’s only Illinois outpost, at 2151 Wabash Avenue in Springfield, suddenly closed its doors for good- pulling the rug out from at least one commenter here. The restaurant opened next to Sears at White Oaks Mall in 19771, then moved to its Wabash Avenue spot, a former Chi-Chi’s, thirty years later2. When Capitol City Now reached out to MCL’s corporate office in Indy, emails were returned as undeliverable. A phone number didn’t provide contact info for a spokesperson3.
That was the same experience I had when I reached out to corporate after word trickled out from employees that Muncie’s location would close on March 29th. I heard nary a peep back! The closure of Muncie’s branch makes sense since the mall that houses it will soon be demolished, but I was there yesterday with Brett Yoder of Hoosier Gym Journey and everything seemed like business as usual. As a matter of fact, it was busier than I’d ever seen the place!
It’s not just Springfield and Muncie that are on the chopping block, sadly. The chain’s Terre Haute location, which opened in Honey Creek Square in 19774, closed on March 155. In Indianapolis, the MCL at 10th and Arlington -a staple since at least 19626– is also closing down by the end of the month7. Unfortunately, Indy’s FOX59/CBS4 was as successful as Captiol City Now and me in reaching out for more information; another email bounced back7.
At this point, the silence is almost as noteworthy as the closures themselves. Maybe there’s a restructuring effort behind the scenes. Maybe it’s something more abrupt. Or maybe this is just how the end of an era unfolds- not with a press release or a carefully managed farewell, but with disconnected phone numbers, bouncing emails, and a handful of dining rooms that just go dark one by one.
At any rate, for those of us who’ve only recently discovered MCL, it feels like we showed up just in time to watch the curtain fall. That’s a real shame! Get it while you can, you guys: soon, there will only be eight left.
Sources Cited
1 MCL Cafeteria (1977, April 24). The State Journal-Register [Springfield]. p. 50.
2 New MCL Cafeteria looking for July opening. The State Journal-Register [Springfield]. p. 44.
3 Stevenson, W. (2025, February 13). Chain restaurant’s Springfield location closes. Capitol City Now [Springfield]. Web. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
Monninger Concrete Here 55 Years. (1977, July 2). The Terre Haute Tribune. p. .14.
5 Essex, C. (2026, March 11). MCL Restaurant in Terre Haute closing after decades of service. WTHI-TV [Terre Haute]. Web. Retrieved March 19.
6 Lunch At Real McL’s Pleasant Experience For Businessmen (1962, April 23). The Indianapolis Star. p. 20.
7 Monroe, H. (2026, March 18). MCL Restaurant closing multiple locations in central Indiana, elsewhere. FOX59/CBS4 [Indianapolis]. Web. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
Dang! Well, this makes me want to go into skip-trace mode.
As an aside, that first ad from 1977 was offering $3 per hour in pay. This was offered while Indiana’s minimum wage was only $1.25 per hour!
Now, I know Indiana has a very low cost of living, but I still find it wild that 49 years later, the minimum wage is just a little more than double what you could make working at MCL, at $7.25.
32 US states have a minimum wage over $10. Interestingly, only two states have a minimum wage lower than ours at $5.15 (Georgia, Wyoming), and four have no state minimum-wage law at all (Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana).*
Kudos to MCL for paying nearly three times what they were required to in the late ’70*. I hope its employees are still being provided for well today – especially those who will soon be out of a job. 💜
*These states do note that qualifying jobs in these states are subject to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour.
Agh, typos … I wish I could figure out how to edit my comments
Not sure if you can in the Jetpack app but on mobile you can for ten minutes after you comment.
It seems like the Grim Reaper is coming for a lot of these older-demographic-skewing “family” restaurants. This seems like the slow attrition model. Here in Oregon we had the sudden departure model happen a couple years ago when the family diner chain Shari’s shut down all their locations in state. Apparently an investment company purchased Shari’s a year previous (never a good sign) and the chain owed nearly a million dollars to Oregon Lottery Commission when it shuttered:
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2024/10/struggling-sharis-cafe-pies-closes-additional-locations.html
I saw an announcement about the closure of the Arlington Avenue location and immediately thought of you. I hope this isn’t the end, but closing this many locations at once looks like the opposite of good news.