Max & Erma’s was founded in 1972 by Todd Barnum and Barry Zacks.  They purchased a local tavern in the German Village of Columbus, Ohio that had been owned and run by Max and Erma Visocnik since 1958.  This is why they named their casual dining restaurant Max & Erma’s.  They sold the company to G&R Acquisitions Inc. in 2008 for $10.2 million and the company declared bankruptcy on October 26th of 2009.  They were acquired by American Blue Ribbon Holdings in 2010 and are currently owned by them.  They currently have many locations spreading across the Midwest and still have the headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

The menu for Max & Erma’s features many different types of food like chocolate chip cookies, Tomato mozzarella chicken sandwich, Cajun shrimp and pasta, Laredo steak, Santa Fe salad, Buffalo chicken sandwich, Hand-Battered Onion rings, and their most famous gourmet hamburgers.  This is a casual dining restaurant and they believe in delivering a great guest experience to everybody that dines as their restaurant.  They only use the freshest and highest quality ingredients they can find.

Max & Erma’s offer franchising opportunities for those that have a minimum net worth of $1 million dollars and at least $800,000 of it is liquid.  They require that any franchisee put up a 30% liquid investment for the first location.  They also require previous restaurant ownership experience for their franchisees.  If you are a group that wants to open a Max & Erma’s franchise you have to have a business net worth of at least $5 million and half a million must be liquid per restaurant that you want to open.  They currently have territories all over the country and most states have areas that are available except for the Midwest and Nevada.  Those are corporate areas that they do not allow franchises in.