Stacks, a three-decade old Burlingame, Calif., breakfast spot with three other locations around the Bay Area, recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. But owner and co-founder Geoffrey Swenson said the business will continue to operate as usual, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Per the June 30 filing in the Northern District of California U.S. bankruptcy Court, the restaurant reported liabilities of more than $1.6 million, a majority of the claims disputed from lawsuits and a partially secured lien. Burlingame was the first location for Stacks, which entered 2020 with five locations around the Bay Area but closed its San Francisco spot in Hayes Valley shortly after shutdown orders were issued for the pandemic. Swenson said yesterday that the bankruptcy filing was a result of losing two restaurants to the pandemic — the San Francisco and the Menlo Park Stacks, the latter sold to a franchisor in 2021 — and that the chapter 11 reorganization is a means to “meet our obligations.” “The business won’t be impacted,” Swenson said. “We’re busier than we’ve ever been.” Swenson and friend Tom Duffy opened the original Burlingame Stacks at 361 California Dr. in 1992, offering comfort breakfast food in ample proportions with pancakes as the star of the show. The restaurant grew over the years to five locations by 2020: San Francisco, Menlo Park, Campbell, Redwood City and Burlingame. The Redwood City and Campbell restaurants had been franchised to Jessica “Yari” Nuñez prior to the pandemic, and Nuñez acquired the longtime Menlo Park spot (open since 2002) in 2021. After the longtime San Francisco outpost in Hayes Valley (501 Hayes St.) shuttered after 13 years in mid-2020, it was taken over by the Hat Trick Hospitality Team — behind The Brixton and Rambler — to become New American restaurant and cocktail bar Hazie's.
