Cracker Barrel Dumps Biscuits, Axes THESE 16 Restaurants

Cracker Barrel has sold Maple Street Biscuit Company and will close the last 16 locations, ending a brand it bought for $36 million in 2019.

Quick Take

Cracker Barrel sold the Maple Street brand and 35 restaurant locations to Biscuit Belly, LLC.
The company will close the remaining 16 Maple Street restaurants.
Cracker Barrel said the move supports its core brand focus and debt reduction.
Biscuit Belly plans to rebrand the acquired locations over 18 to 24 months.

Why Cracker Barrel Is Exiting Maple Street

Cracker Barrel framed the deal as a clean break from a side brand that had grown too small to matter much to the parent company.

Reporting says Maple Street accounted for less than 2 percent of Cracker Barrel’s annual revenue, while the company also completed a separate sale-leaseback deal on 26 of its own restaurants to bring in about $77 million for debt reduction.

That makes the move look less like a flashy expansion story and more like a hard portfolio reset. The company has now paired a brand sale with a property deal, which is the kind of one-two move investors watch closely when a chain wants to protect its main business and steady its balance sheet.

Cracker Barrel is saying goodbye to one of its brands https://t.co/noZBlJE4Nm

— IndyStar (@indystar) July 22, 2026

What Happens to the Maple Street Restaurants

The biggest practical change is that 35 Maple Street locations are changing hands while 16 others shut down. Biscuit Belly says it will convert the acquired units to its own brand over the next 18 to 24 months, with the aim of growing to more than 60 locations by the end of 2028.

Cracker Barrel had already trimmed Maple Street before this sale. USA Today reported that the company closed 14 Maple Street locations in September 2025 because they did not meet financial expectations, which suggests the brand had been under pressure before this larger exit.

What This Says About Cracker Barrel’s Strategy

This is a familiar corporate pattern. Management calls it focus. Wall Street calls it simplification. The plain-English version is that Cracker Barrel decided Maple Street was no longer worth the trouble, especially after years of trying to make it fit inside a much older, more traditional restaurant business.

Cracker Barrel Completes $77 Million Sale-Leaseback And Divests Maple Street Biscuit Company: Cracker Barrel has completed a sale-leaseback transaction involving 26 company-owned restaurant properties and divested certain assets of its Maple Street… https://t.co/DusNIiDK8b pic.twitter.com/UwcMlABcPH

— Pulse 2.0 (@pulse2news) July 21, 2026

The move also shows how quickly restaurant math can change. A concept can look like a growth engine when a chain buys it, then become a distraction when margins, debt, and core-brand pressure start to bite.

Cracker Barrel bought Maple Street for $36 million and later chose to cash out, close the leftovers, and push the rest of the value into its main operation.