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Cracker Barrel has sold its Maple Street Biscuit Company brand and 35 restaurants to Biscuit Belly, LLC and will close 16 locations of the fast casual breakfast chain.

The move comes less than a year after Cracker Barrel closed 14 Maple Street locations in September 2025 because they "simply didn't meet our financial expectations," the company told USA TODAY in a statement at the time, while thanking customers for their patronage.

Cracker Barrel acquired Maple Street Biscuit Company in 2019 for $36 million. The breakfast chain was founded in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2012, and serves a variety of biscuits and other breakfast foods. At the time of the acquisition, Maple Street had 28 company-owned locations and five franchised locations across seven states.

In a separate move, Cracker Barrel also completed a sale-leaseback deal involving 26 company-owned locations. That means Cracker Barrel sold the locations to an investor and immediately leased them back. Cracker Barrel said these transactions will generate approximately $77 million in net proceeds.

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Biscuit Belly said in a news release the acquisition of the 35 Maple Street Biscuit Company locations "will accelerate the company's expansion across the Southeast and bring Biscuit Belly to over 60 units by the end of 2028."

According to the news release, Biscuit Belly will convert the Maple Street Biscuit Company locations to the Belly Biscuit brand over the next 18-24 months. The conversions will begin immediately starting with locations in the greater Cincinnati area and Richmond, Virginia.

"Acquiring an iconic brand like Maple Street, one of the original gourmet biscuit sandwich concepts, was not on my 2026 bingo card," said Chad Coulter, co-founder and CEO of Biscuit Belly, in the news release. "Two of the biggest headwinds that growing brands encounter are the time required to find and build locations, and the difficulty of finding great teams. When we looked at Maple Street's geography, footprints, and established teams, a light bulb went off."

Biscuit Belly opened its first location in 2019 and has grown to 15 locations across the Southeast, according to the company.

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cracker Barrel is saying goodbye to one of its brands