The days may be numbered for "scattered, covered and smothered" hash browns at Waffle House. The iconic roadside grill's biggest franchisee has filed for bankruptcy protection.
Northlake Foods Inc. of Brandon, which operates 146 Waffle Houses in Florida, Georgia and Virginia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in mid-September. Chapter 11 allows a company to reorganize its finances while protected from its creditors.
According to the bankruptcy filing, 90 of Northlake Foods' Waffle House locations are in Florida, but it wasn't immediately clear whether it operates any local restaurants.
The company filed for bankruptcy because Waffle House Inc. of Norcross, Ga., was threatening to terminate the franchise agreement that gives it the right to operate the restaurants, the bankruptcy filing says.
Northlake has other problems, too, according to the filing. The company is short of cash, has suffered from declining sales and has seen its costs rise because of increases in the minimum wage.
It lists assets of $10 million to $50 million and liabilities in the same range.
Calls to Northlake Foods President Daryl Saylor and the company's bankruptcy attorney, Roberta Colton of the Trenam Kemker firm, were not returned Monday.
Northlake has about 3,000 employees, the bankruptcy filing says.
The first Waffle House, with its trademark yellow sign, opened Labor Day 1955, in the Atlanta suburb of Avondale, the company's Web site says. By 2006, when Waffle House first began accepting credit cards, the number of restaurants had grown to 1,500 in 25 states.
At least one other big Waffle House franchisee has filed for bankruptcy in recent months. SouthEastWaffles of Nashville, which controls more than 100 Waffle Houses in the Southeast, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the summer.
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