The owners of Old Country Buffet, Hometown Buffet and several other all-you-can eat restaurant chains are planning a quick bankruptcy sale for their assets and some of their leases, with hopes to sell them off by the summer, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. San Antonio-based Fresh Acquisitions LLC and Buffets LLC along with several affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection Tuesday, marking the fourth trip through bankruptcy since 2008 for some of the sister chains. Together, the companies owe about $13.5 million in secured debt and more than $5.3 million in unsecured liabilities, according to court papers. The companies said that they filed for bankruptcy again after the Covid-19 pandemic and government-mandated shutdowns disrupted their restaurant operations and severely limited customer demand. Before the pandemic, the companies operated 90 restaurants in 27 states, including other brands such as Furr’s Fresh Buffet, Country Buffet, Ryan’s, Fire Mountain, and Tahoe Joe’s Famous Steakhouse. But the steep decline in sales at the restaurants from occupancy restrictions and the banning of family-style buffet dining forced the companies to close all of their all-you-can-eat locations. The only locations currently open are six Tahoe Joe’s restaurants in California, which had revenue of about $21 million a year before the pandemic, court papers show. Out of their remaining 71 leases, the companies plan to turn over 57 locations to their landlords to stop the continued payment of about $1 million in rent a month. The remaining 14 leases could potentially be transferred through the sale process so that a buyer could use them for future operations. If not, the leased locations could be handed back to the landlords.
