Twin Peaks is about to open a restaurant in Kissimmee, Florida. | Picture courtesy of Twin Peaks.
The previous couple of weeks have been huge for Twin Peaks. There have been some main sporting occasions throughout that interval to convey prospects to the sports activities bar chain, together with the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs, the NBA championship, a UFC occasion on the White Home, and the World Cup is within the U.S.—bringing with it vacationers desperate to attempt U.S. eating places.
Oh, and the corporate has emerged from chapter safety with new homeowners backed by a bunch of franchisees.
“Every little thing goes actually, rather well,” Roger Gondek, the corporate’s president, stated in an interview. “We’re poised for progress.”
The sale, finalized by a chapter court docket earlier this week, needed to be a reduction following a five-year stretch that would solely be described as a roller-coaster. The model was bought, resumed robust progress after which was spun off in an IPO.
However it then watched prime executives depart, monetary issues mount and gross sales begin to endure, simply earlier than the corporate landed in chapter, due completely to debt taken out by Fats Manufacturers, which purchased the chain in 2021.
“It’s been difficult,” Gondek stated. “Most likely the most important problem was attempting to maintain all people calm via the method, as a result of folks don’t like change and so they don’t like uncertainty. And naturally what we’ve been going via since January 27 is quite a lot of uncertainty.”
But make no mistake, Twin Peaks shouldn’t have been in that place within the first place.
The breastaurant
The chain was based in 2005, by Randy DeWitt and Scott Gordon, each longtime restaurant trade veterans. The restaurant was a sports activities bar with a mountain lodge theme, that includes a wait workers of younger ladies sporting skimpy outfits, together with tops with a black-and-red checkerboard sample. Its emblem options twin mountain peaks which can be a nod to its buxom-themed branding.
It was one in every of quite a few breastaurant chains that emerged as opponents to Hooters and would show one of many extra profitable. Certainly, in 2011 it could entice a bunch of former Hooters executives, together with former CEO Coby Brooks, that signed on as franchisees beneath La Cima Eating places. Gondek got here to Twin Peaks as a part of that group.
Twin Peaks was later bought to the private-equity agency Garnett Station Companions, which grew the model to greater than 80 areas by 2021, when it bought the chain to Fats Manufacturers, the corporate based in 2017 by Andy Wiederhorn.
Fats Manufacturers acquired largely small, largely struggling manufacturers at comparatively low costs utilizing artistic financing. However it then began making large-scale offers with plenty of debt in 2020 and 2021. Throughout that interval the corporate acquired Johnny Rockets, Fazoli’s, International Franchise Group, after which Twin Peaks.
Fats Manufacturers paid $300 million for Twin Peaks. “I assumed it was going to be nice,” Gondek stated. “Clearly, that wasn’t the case.”
Fats Manufacturers used debt, within the type of bonds bought to buyers which can be backed by the property of the chains it purchased. It will amass greater than $1 billion price of such debt. Wiederhorn in a presentation earlier this 12 months acknowledged that the corporate initially deliberate to refinance that debt in round 2022, however rising rates of interest prevented that from taking place.
That debt drove Fats Manufacturers out of business, taking Twin Peaks with it.
Monetary challenges
There have been loads of indicators of stress at Twin Peaks beneath Fats Manufacturers’ possession.
Fats Manufacturers acquired Smokey Bones, a former Darden-owned casual-dining barbecue chain, in 2023 with the specific plan to transform its areas to Twin Peaks, banking on the latter chain’s increased volumes and the comparatively low value of conversions.
However many Smokey Bones areas couldn’t in the end be transformed as a result of they have been in procuring areas that didn’t need a sports activities bar chain with a 48% alcohol combine.
Twin Peaks was spun off as a public firm in early 2025. Two months later, CEO Joe Hummel—one other member of the La Cima Group—stepped down, together with the corporate’s chief authorized officer, Clay Mingus.
His alternative, Kim Boerema, lasted six months. Boerema would get replaced by Wiederhorn himself in early January. Wiederhorn largely left the day-to-day operations to Gondek, who was given the title of brand name president of Twin Peaks. “It’s not an enormous raise for me to step into the CEO position, as a result of as chairman of the board I used to be giving steering on technique,” Wiederhorn stated again in January. “It’s saved the administration group calm via an excessive amount of change.”
Authorized filings after which the chapter all described a troublesome surroundings for the chains beneath Fats Manufacturers possession as its monetary issues mounted.
A gaggle of Twin Peaks franchisees in a court docket submitting stated that it had “a lot floor to cowl with the brand new proprietor of the enterprise to treatment previous defects and efficiency failures beneath prior administration …”
Twin Peaks’ same-store gross sales began declining. The corporate’s losses grew, significantly as Smokey Bones’ struggles worsened. And the burden of that debt took a toll. Within the first 9 months of final 12 months, for example, curiosity expense on the corporate’s debt was $34 million. By comparability, occupancy prices have been $18.7 million.
Twin Peaks system gross sales and common unit volumes each fell final 12 months, for the primary time since 2020. Smokey Bones, in the meantime, closed eating places final 12 months, and shuttered the remainder of them this 12 months.
Ongoing progress
Regardless of all that, Twin Peaks enjoys some actual benefits. A typical Twin Peaks generates greater than $5 million, with almost half of that coming from its bar enterprise. These volumes are up 31% since 2019, in line with Technomic.
Almost 92% of the corporate’s prospects charge their satisfaction as “glorious” or “good,” in line with Technomic knowledge. Greater than three-quarters of the corporate’s prospects are millennials or Gen Z. And, sure, the majority are male, 71%, in line with Technomic.
And regardless of the monetary issues and chapter, Twin Peaks saved pushing progress. It’s including a bunch of latest areas proper now. It has opened shops in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Omaha, Nebraska, and is opening two shops within the subsequent two weeks, one in Kissimmee, Florida, which is an organization location, and one other in Mexico.
“We’re very enthusiastic about Kissimmee,” Gondek stated. “We predict that’s going to be an awesome location. We do very nicely in Florida, as a matter of truth. Our highest quantity shops are in Florida.”
Twin Peaks was bought out of chapter to a bunch of the corporate’s bondholders, which opted to transform their debt to fairness. The technical worth of the deal was slightly below $360 million.
Whereas such offers out of chapter are comparatively widespread, it’s much less widespread to see buyers in bonds take possession. On this case, they’re shopping for the corporate with the backing of a bunch of franchisees, 3BMgmnt, JEB Meals Group, and Operadora 2 Montes, the latter being a franchisee in Mexico.
Gondek referred to as it “sensible.” The group plans to in the end purchase the corporate from the bondholders, although there is no such thing as a timeline to take action. For Twin Peaks, it’s a very good final result.
“The three franchisees are actually well-versed in our operations, our requirements, and our methods,” he stated. “Once we came upon that they have been going to be advisors to the bondholders, I really acquired very excited, as a result of I like working with all three of them, and we’re working collectively intently.”
The brand new homeowners are additionally maintaining in place present administration, led by Gondek, Chief Advertising Officer Melissa Fry, Chief Individuals Officer Lexi Burns, and Chief Monetary Officer Scott Grey. Fry and Burns have been appointed final 12 months.
Twin Peaks simply upgraded its beverage menu with objects like this Jack Blackberry Lemonade.
A World Cup enhance
The World Cup is the most important sporting occasion on the planet, however it’s by no means been that huge of an occasion within the U.S.
It’s this 12 months, partly as a result of the nation is cohosting the occasion. But additionally due to the time zone. “The very best half about having it in North America is the time zones,” Gondek stated. “When it’s over in Europe or Asia, quite a lot of occasions the video games are at eight within the morning, 9 within the morning. And we’ll be open for these video games, however you don’t get lots of people.
“So the time zones matchup has been excellent for us, and so we’re seeing an enormous raise in gross sales.”
It’s additionally been huge in locations like Dallas, Miami or Atlanta, that are host cities and the place Twin Peaks has a presence.
In Dallas particularly, visiting followers from Croatia marched on the streets with big flags, rooting on their groups.
In the meantime, the corporate continues to develop its menu. It added new objects to its bar, together with extra zero-proof choices corresponding to a Strawberry Pineapple Fizz mocktail. In March it added a number of new menu objects upfront of the March Insanity NCAA basketball tournaments, together with a Turkey Cheddar Soften, Crispy Fish Sandwich, Candy Warmth Shrimp Tacos, and Twice-Baked Potatoes.
The event is one in every of two occasions through the 12 months when Twin Peaks debuts new menu objects. It additionally provides new objects earlier than soccer season and is engaged on these objects now.
The corporate beneath Gondek can also be bringing again handheld menus to interchange the QR codes the corporate adopted through the pandemic. It additionally examined billboards, placing up seven of them round Dallas, and is testing tv adverts for the primary time in its historical past.
Gondek himself plans to work extra intently with franchisees, who function about three-quarters of the chain’s areas.
“We’ve a robust relationship with our franchisees, and now that I’m on this place, I plan to collaborate with them greater than possibly prior to now,” he stated. “I feel that’s going to assist us with our progress, enable them to have extra enter.”
And easily getting out from beneath the burden of chapter ought to assist, too.
“We’ve a lot white area to develop in,” Gondek stated, “and now we have now the monetary sources to excel at that progress.”
