The 97 restaurants of the Sweet Tomatoes and Soup Plantation chain — known for their 50-foot-long salad bars and serve-yourself soup, pasta and pizza stations — will close permanently because of the coronavirus crisis.

The news was announced by CEO John Haywood to the San Diego Union Tribune. Employees in the Bay Area had already received word that layoffs would be permanent.

“The FDA had previously put out recommendations that included discontinuing self-serve stations, like self-serve beverages in fast food, but they specifically talked about salad bars and buffets,” Haywood told the paper. “The regulations are understandable, but unfortunately, it makes it very difficult to reopen. And I’m not sure the health departments are ever going to allow it.

“We could’ve overcome any other obstacle, and we’ve worked for eight weeks to overcome these intermittent financial challenges but it doesn’t work if we are not allowed to continue our model.”

Seven Bay Area restaurants will be affected by the shutdown: Two in San Jose (Coleman Avene, Bernal Road), one in Sunnyvale (Kifer Road), one in Mountain View (Grant Road), one in Fremont (Paseo Padre Parkway), one in Pleasanton (Hopyard Road) and one in Pleasant Hill (Crescent Drive).

The all-you-can-eat restaurant chain — with help-yourself stations for salads, soup, pizza and focaccia, dessert and drinks — started in San Diego in 1978, then expanded statewide and across the United States. The restaurants are called Sweet Tomatoes in Northern California and Soup Plantation in Southern California.