Smokey Bones permanently closed all of its locations this week.
The chain’s website lists around 30 restaurants in over a dozen states.
“As of yesterday, all Smokey Bones locations have ceased operations. On behalf of Management, it has been a privilege to serve our customers,” FAT Brands said in a statement to media outlets.
The move comes after FAT Brands and Twin Hospitality Group—the entities overseeing Smokey Bones—declared bankruptcy after mounting debt.
The remainder of FAT Brands is being sold to multiple buyers, with separate deals for Hot Dog on a Stick, Twin Peaks, and Elevation Burger, and the rest grouped into a single transaction.
FAT Brands acquired Smokey Bones in 2023 for $30 million, back when the concept had roughly 60 locations. From the start, the plan was to transform about half of them into Twin Peaks restaurants. Some remodels were completed in Florida and North Carolina.
In September, Twin Hospitality announced that it identified 19 Smokey Bones restaurants for Twin Peaks conversion, which would raise AUV from $3.5 million to $7.8 million.
At the same time, the restaurant group identified 15 underperforming Smokey Bones locations, most of which had already been or were scheduled to shut down. These closures were expected to significantly improve profitability.
Twin Hospitality also said back then that the remaining 26 Smokey Bones locations were performing well, producing positive cash flow, and contributing about $3 million in annual EBITDA.
FAT Brands and Twin Hospitality never formally decided what to do with the remaining Smokey Bones restaurants. Potential options were to continue operating under Twin Hospitality or being put up for sale. Franchising the concept was also considered.
CEO Andy Wiederhorn, at one point, was optimistic about the brand’s future.
“Smokey Bones has a loyal following,” the CEO said last year. “There’s an opportunity to really grow that brand again, and barbecue is very popular. It’s just that in our portfolio, there’s a return on capital that’s so much higher by converting into Twin Peaks. So it isn’t about we’re going to build a new store today as a corporate store. We’d rather do it as a Twin Peaks because it’s going to have twice the sales and twice the profitability.”
Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones, originally under FAT Brands’ umbrella, were spun off into Twin Hospitality at the beginning of 2025, to allow Twin Peaks to execute and measure performance on its own.
Darden Restaurants founded Smokey Bones in 1999 and owned the concept until 2007.
