Overview
- True Food Kitchen and certain affiliates filed voluntary Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas after closing 12 restaurants that served their final customers on Sunday, October 4.
- The company said 34 remaining restaurants across 14 states are open and it has filed first‑day motions to keep paying employees, maintain guest programs, and continue working with vendors.
- Court filings list about $42 million in funded debt and show roughly $1.6 million in unrestricted cash at the time of filing, which advisers say covers about two weeks of operations without new financing.
- The company and its advisers blame significant management turnover, expansion and menu changes that strayed from the brand, pandemic experiments such as ghost kitchens, and a recent cyclospora outbreak for weakening sales and operations.
- True Food Kitchen has a conditional roughly $20 million DIP commitment from HumanCo TFK IV, has hired legal and restructuring advisers, and will seek a court‑approved buyer while closures, lease deals, and staff impacts are worked through.