Papa Gino’s closes an unknown number of restaurants

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Papa Gino’s, a popular pizza chain in New England, has apparently abruptly closed several locations.

Patrons and workers at Papa Gino’s locations tweeted Sunday about the chain’s surprise closures, which included a number of locations in the Boston area and New Hampshire.

Company representatives did not immediately reply to e-mail messages sent by the Globe on Sunday night, and a full list of the closures was not available online.

Tom Spratt, 34, who said he was a grill cook and pizza bench worker at the Papa Gino’s on Beale Street in Quincy, told the Globe that he found out his store had closed when a former co-worker asked Sunday afternoon if he needed a job.

Spratt said he told the ex-colleague no, before she messaged him a link to a news story about the store closings.

“All in all it was a pretty atrocious way to handle the situation,” Spratt said in an e-mail exchange Sunday night.

A recorded message on the Quincy location’s general telephone number does, indeed, notify customers that it is has shuttered its doors for good.

“Thank you for calling Papa Gino’s. This restaurant is now permanently closed,” the phone message said Sunday night, before referring callers to the pizza chain’s website for a list of restaurant locations. “Thank you, and we look forward to serving you soon.”

Spratt said he had not officially been told he no longer has a job, but a number of signs — the recorded message, and not being able to log in to an internal scheduling system — indicated as much. He said he texted a manager, who had not responded as of Sunday night.

“It’s just disappointing that someone made the decision to do that to hundreds of people with no communication whatsoever,” he said of the decision to abruptly close several stores.

The Dedham-based company previously said it had 150 stores. As of Sunday, its website only listed 97 locations.

Papa Gino’s was founded in 1961 in East Boston as Piece O’ Pizza. It changed its name to Papa Gino’s in 1968 and expanded throughout Boston, other parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

The company also owns D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches. Patrons reported some of those restaurants also had signs saying they were permanently closed Sunday.