MADERA  –  Around one o’clock this afternoon with customers eating their lunch the owner of Madera’s Cool Hand Luke’s Steak House and locked the doors. While employees knew that today would be the last day the restaurant would be open, none of them knew at what time they would be out of a job.

According to employees that contacted Big Valley News the restaurant, owned by Tom Pilloud of Fresno, was having issues with vendors and employees. One former employee said she would try to cash her payroll checks but she wasn’t sure if it would bounce or not.

Operations at two locations ceased operations this week in Madera and Turlock. This franchisee’s third location in Riverbank is expected to close soon. A phone call to that restaurant found a manager that had no information of the status of her location.

There has been no comment given by the franchisee Tom Pilloud. No one answers the door at his home at 2627 Cole Avenue in Fresno. The parent company Heritage Restaurant Brands had no information available.

A sign was hung in the window of the restaurant that said, “Lost our lease. Thank you for 10 great years.” An employee posted a photo of that sign on their Facebook page that said, “[expletive deleted] no we didn’t lose our lease u didn’t pay the damn bills.”

The Madera restaurant employed forty people who have been notified that their final checks will be available for them at the restaurant at 9am Wednesday morning. Gift cards can be used at any other Cool Hand Luke’s in Clovis or Tulare.