[ALERT] Maple Street Biscuit Company Sold to Competitor, Sixteen Locations Close, One in Atlanta

Breakfast franchise Biscuit Belly has more than tripled in size following its acquisition of Maple Street Biscuit Company.  Biscuit Belly purchased the Jacksonville-born brand from Cracker Barrel, which itself purchased the brand from its founders in 2019.  

Cracker Barrel paid $36 million for what was then a 33 unit chain.  Following significant growth, the company shuttered fourteen units this past October, with sixteen more closing Monday ahead of the sale, and another 35 expected to be converted to Biscuit Belly over the next 18-24 months.  (Terms of Maple Street's sale were not made public.)   

Although spared from closure this past fall, the West Midtown outpost of Biscuit Belly was not as lucky this time around and was the one Georgia unit the company closed this week.  Located at Westside Ironworks (1085 Howell Mill Road), the restaurant first opened as Cracker Barrel-backed concept Holler & Dash in August 2017, but was, along with the entire seven-unit brand, converted to Maple Street in 2020.  (The roughly 2,600 square foot space was originally occupied by ill-fated Shark Tank-famous concept Tom+Chee)  

Maple Street's closure follows last week's closure of fellow breakfast concept Big Bad Breakfast, which closed its Howell Mill Road restaurant after less than nine months in business.  Fellow Westside Ironworks tenant Dixon Rye, Maple Street's neighbor, previously relocated closer to Peachtree Battle, leaving open the possibility that both spaces could potentially be reworked for the right tenant(s).  

For its part, Biscuit Belly was established by husband and wife Chad and Lauren Coulter in Louisville in 2019.  The brand began franchising in 2020 and today counts fifteen locations, including two in Georgia - Acworth and Peachtree City - and a third "coming soon" to Evans, near Augusta, according to the company's website.  Both Georgia restaurants currently have 4.5 star ratings on Google with a combined total of nearly 1,000 reviews.   

Chad shared on LinkedIn Tuesday that "A few months prior to the Maple Street acquisition happened, we were fortunate enough to have a conversation with Brett Schulman about his learnings from CAVA's acquisition of Zoe's."  

In a "same same but different" kind of scenario, Cava, then a privately held 66 unit chain, purchased publicly traded 261 unit chain Zoes Kitchen for approximately $300 million in 2018.  Cava would spend the following roughly five years closing or converting all Zoes to the Cava brand, something many Zoes loyalists are still bitter about.  

Today, after themselves going public in 2023, Cava operates 474 locations across the country, including 27 in Georgia, 24 of which are converted former Zoes. 

The primary issues any brand runs into when growing are securing prime locations in new markets and hiring and training new employees.  

Biscuit Belly is looking to save some time and follow in Cava's footsteps with its acquisition and conversion of Maple Street.  

After the Howell Mill closure, there will be five Maple Street locations slated for Biscuit Belly conversions in Georgia including metro Atlanta locations in Alpharetta, Duluth, Kennesaw, and Woodstock, along with a fifth in Savannah.  

According to the company, conversions are slated to begin in the Cincinnati and Richmond, Virginia markets.  

Are you excited for the planned conversions of the metro Atlanta Maple Street Biscuit locations?  Have you ever been to Biscuit Belly?  Who in metro Atlanta do think makes the best biscuit? 

Please share your thoughts below.