Last fall, Cracker Barrel’s decision to close 20% of its Maple Street Biscuit Company restaurants looked like an ominous warning. Now the company has delivered its final verdict.
Cracker Barrel has sold the Maple Street name and 35 restaurants to rapidly growing breakfast chain Biscuit Belly. The remaining 16 Maple Street locations will close permanently.
The company never used the word “failure” in its announcement. It did not need to.
Cracker Barrel spent $36 million buying Maple Street, expanded it aggressively across the Southeast and repeatedly described it as a long-term growth opportunity. Less than seven years later, it is paying millions of dollars to leave the business completely.
Maple Street was supposed to become Cracker Barrel’s growth engine
Cracker Barrel acquired Maple Street Biscuit Company in 2019.
At the time, the Jacksonville-founded chain had 28 company-owned restaurants and five franchised locations across seven states. Its menu included made-from-scratch biscuits, waffles, breakfast bowls and elaborate chicken biscuit sandwiches such as the Squawking Goat, featuring fried chicken, goat cheese and pepper jelly.
The concept appeared to solve an important problem for Cracker Barrel.
Traditional Cracker Barrel restaurants are large, expensive buildings frequently located near interstate exits. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner while also operating substantial country stores.
Maple Street restaurants were smaller, opened primarily for breakfast and lunch and fit more easily into urban and suburban shopping centers. Cracker Barrel believed the chain could reach younger customers and enter neighborhoods unsuitable for a full-sized Old Country Store.
Management demonstrated that confidence by converting six Holler & Dash restaurants into Maple Street locations and accelerating new-store development.
By 2022, Maple Street had reached 51 restaurants across nine states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Ohio became the chain’s tenth state that same year.
The restaurant count eventually climbed to 68.
Then the growth story collapsed.
Cracker Barrel started closing restaurants in 2025
In September 2025, Cracker Barrel announced that 14 underperforming Maple Street locations would close.
That was an unusually large reduction for a chain with fewer than 70 restaurants. The closures eliminated approximately one-fifth of Maple Street’s entire footprint in a single round.
Additional restaurants disappeared afterward, but Cracker Barrel continued publicly discussing the brand as part of its business.
That changed July 20.
Cracker Barrel sold the Maple Street trademark, intellectual property and assets associated with 35 restaurants to Biscuit Belly. It simultaneously announced that the other 16 restaurants would close.
The sale price was not disclosed. However, Cracker Barrel expects to record between $37 million and $39 million in non-cash charges, plus another $6 million to $8 million in cash costs associated with leaving the business.
That means its total exit-related charges could reach $47 million—more than the original $36 million purchase price.
Maple Street will disappear completely
The 35 restaurants purchased by Biscuit Belly are not expected to close immediately.
Biscuit Belly plans to convert them into its own restaurants over approximately 18 to 24 months. The acquired locations stretch across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
The transition will begin with restaurants near Cincinnati and Richmond, Virginia. Other conversions are scheduled to continue through 2028.
Biscuit Belly currently operates approximately 15 restaurants. Acquiring Maple Street’s buildings and experienced employees gives the company a shortcut to more than tripling its footprint without finding and constructing dozens of new locations.
Customers may continue seeing Maple Street signs and ordering familiar dishes during the transition. Eventually, however, every surviving restaurant will receive Biscuit Belly’s name, colorful interior design and different menu.
The Maple Street Biscuit Company name is going away entirely.
Cracker Barrel is returning to its core business
Maple Street contributed less than 2% of Cracker Barrel’s annual revenue. Management said abandoning the chain should improve profitability beginning in fiscal 2027.
Cracker Barrel also completed a sale-leaseback transaction involving 26 of its Old Country Store properties. The deal generated approximately $77 million that the company intends to use to reduce debt.
Together, the transactions reveal a company becoming considerably more cautious.
Cracker Barrel is no longer attempting to build a second national restaurant chain. It is selling real estate, paying down debt and directing management’s attention toward its approximately 660 namesake restaurants.
That may be the correct decision. Cracker Barrel’s core business is dealing with declining traffic, customer distrust and the aftermath of its widely criticized logo and restaurant-remodeling effort. Fixing those problems should be more important than expanding a separate breakfast concept.
Still, the Maple Street exit cannot be presented as an ordinary portfolio adjustment.
Cracker Barrel bought a promising 33-location company, nearly doubled its size, closed approximately 30 restaurants and sold what remained. The buyer will erase Maple Street’s identity and replace it with another brand.
After nearly seven years of expansion, experimentation and retrenchment, Cracker Barrel has finally acknowledged what the numbers already showed: Maple Street Biscuit Company did not become the growth engine management promised.
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