SoCal Diner Chain Files For Bankruptcy After String Of Closures

A Southern California diner chain has filed for bankruptcy after closing several locations earlier this year, according to reports.

Marmalade Cafe entered its Chapter 11 filing Sept. 2, citing rent disputes and supplier debts, the New York Post reported.

Subscribe

The move comes after the chain closed its Santa Monica and Calabasas restaurants over the summer. Its Original Farmers Market location in Los Angeles shuttered earlier this year, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Director of Operations Lindsay Arnold told the Times that a construction project at the Commons at Calabasas, which began earlier in the year, cut monthly sales by $50,000, and that the Calabasas restaurant's losses were a primary catalyst for the bankruptcy.

The balance sheet in the filing listed the company's total assets at $12.7 million and its net income at -$680,314, according to the Post, which reported that Marmalade Cafe's unsecured debts totaled more than $2.4 million.

Restaurants remain in Westlake Village, Malibu, Sherman Oaks and El Segundo. Arnold told the Times that those locations are healthy and strong.

Marmalade Cafe was founded in 1990 by Selwyn Yosslowitz, Robert Burns Jr. and Bonnie Burns as a neighborhood bakery and cafe before expanding into a full-service restaurant chain with multiple Southern California locations. The founders sold the business in 2007.