The parent company of restaurant chain Smokey Bones has filed for bankruptcy restructuring.
Fat Brands Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late January. In addition to Smokey Bones, Fat Brands operates restaurant chains such as Fazoli’s, Johnny Rockets, Ponderosa Steakhouse, and Fatburger. Fat Brands is majority owner of the subsidiary Twin Hospitality Group, which was formed specifically to run the Twin Peaks sports lodges and Smokey Bones restaurants. Twin Hospitality also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Smokey Bones location on South Dirksen Parkway in Springfield is the barbecue restaurant chain’s last location in Illinois. An employee who answered the phone at the South Dirksen restaurant referred questions about the bankruptcy’s impact on location operations to the corporate office. Fat Brands Inc. did not respond to a request for comment.
However, in a statement released following the Jan. 26 bankruptcy filing, Twin Hospitality said it expects its restaurants will remain open and operating as usual throughout the Chapter 11 process. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows companies to restructure their debts while continuing to operate.
The company said in the statement that the Chapter 11 process would allow the company to “strengthen our balance sheet” and create the financial flexibility needed for growth.
Fat Brands acquired Smokey Bones in 2023 and subsequently spun it off into Twin Hospitality in January 2025. Twin Hospitality has since announced plans to convert 19 of the 60 Smokey Bones restaurants that were in operation when Fat Brands acquired the brand into Twin Peaks lodges.
In September, the company announced that it had identified 15 underperforming Smokey Bones locations, 10 of which the company had already closed and five more it planned to close before the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2025. The Smokey Bones in Rockford closed in January, making the Springfield restaurant the only one left in the state.
The company said at the time that the remaining 26 Smokey Bones locations were “generating positive cash flow.”
Twin Hospitality reported a net loss of $57.4 million on revenue of $257.3 million for the first three quarters of 2025, according to its Sept. 28 third quarter filing, the most recently available financial filing.