Cracker Barrel Sells Maple Street Biscuit Company

Cracker Barrel is selling its Maple Street Biscuit Company brand and exiting the fast-casual breakfast business entirely, more than six years after acquiring the chain for $36 million.

Biscuit Belly Acquires 35 Locations

Cracker Barrel sold the Maple Street trademark, intellectual property, and assets tied to 35 restaurants to Biscuit Belly, a Louisville, Kentucky-based fast-casual chain. The remaining 16 Maple Street locations will close.

Cracker Barrel CEO Julie Masino said: "Divesting Maple Street sharpens our focus on the core Cracker Barrel brand and is expected to improve profitability. Combined with our improved fiscal 2026 outlook and reduced leverage, these actions demonstrate the progress we are making against our strategic priorities."

Sale Tied To Broader Debt Reduction

The Maple Street divestment came alongside a separate sale-leaseback transaction covering 26 Cracker Barrel-owned restaurants, generating roughly $77 million in net proceeds the company said it will use to pay down debt.

Cracker Barrel expects to record between $37 million and $39 million in non-cash charges tied to the Maple Street exit in its fiscal fourth quarter, plus an additional $6 million to $8 million in cash costs for severance, lease terminations, and other expenses extending into fiscal 2027.

Biscuit Belly Triples Its Footprint

Biscuit Belly, founded in 2019 by Chad and Lauren Coulter, currently operates around 15 locations. Acquiring the Maple Street sites will more than triple its footprint and is expected to bring the chain past 60 locations by the end of 2028.

"When we looked at Maple Street's geography, footprints, and established teams, a light bulb went off," Biscuit Belly co-founder and CEO Chad Coulter said. Conversions to the Biscuit Belly brand will begin in the greater Cincinnati area and Richmond, Virginia, over the next 18 to 24 months.

Maple Street Had Already Shrunk

Maple Street was founded in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012 and grew to 33 locations before Cracker Barrel acquired it in October 2019. The chain expanded to roughly 70 restaurants by early 2025 before Cracker Barrel began closing underperforming locations, shrinking it to 51 restaurants ahead of Monday's sale. The brand represented less than 2% of Cracker Barrel's annual revenue.

TheTrendsWire's Take

Selling a brand for undisclosed terms while simultaneously taking $37-39 million in non-cash charges to exit it tells you Cracker Barrel wasn't negotiating from a position of strength — this reads less like a strategic divestment and more like cutting a loss that had already shrunk from 70 locations to 51 in under a year. Biscuit Belly gets the better end of this deal by a wide margin: an established multi-state footprint and trained teams for a fraction of what building that organically would cost.

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