Nashville hot chicken chain Party Fowl seeks bankruptcy protection to stay open
The owners of Party Fowl restaurants — popular destinations for Nashville hot chicken, booze-filled slushies and trivia nights — are seeking bankruptcy protection to restructure the six-restaurant chain's heavy debt load.
Meanwhile, efforts to relocate the original downtown location to flee high rent have fallen through because of financial difficulties.
Despite falling behind on rent, the original downtown Party Fowl at 719 8th Ave. S. remains open.
Owners Austin Smith and Nick Jacobson hope to retain all locations while they reorganize lopsided finances.
The business owners on Jan. 9 filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 Subsection V protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Tennessee Nashville Division. The Subsection V provision, introduced in 2021 to help businesses struggling with Covid-19 restrictions, allows debtors to quickly restructure their bills.
The brand's New Orleans-inspired menu thrived until Covid-19 restrictions threw a wrench into expansion plans and created "exponential" hurdles, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Party Fowl Nashville locations: 'Difficult time'
The downtown location opened in 2014, followed by successful openings in Murfreesboro (2017) and Donelson (2018).
The restaurants were thriving until the Cool Springs location opened on March 2, 2020 — less than two weeks before the global Covid-19 pandemic was declared.
"This unfortunate timing started a snowball of debt that was only exacerbated by the subsequent opening of locations in Chattanooga and Destin which have failed to take hold as of yet," Party Fowl attorney Alex Payne wrote in a court filing.
The restaurants have as much as $10 million in debt and less than $50,000 in assets, according to court records.
The court will work with Party Fowl owners to reduce debt owed to its many creditors.
What will happen to Party Fowl's locations?
Despite these problems, there is no public plan yet to close any of the six standalone restaurants or Party Fowl concessions at the Nashville airport and Nissan Stadium.
Wages and benefits for Party Fowl employees are set aside so operations are not affected while a court trustee works with creditors to reduce debt payments.
"Party Fowl still has a great product and great experience to offer its loyal customer base. It simply needs the tools offered by Chapter 11, Subchapter V to right the ship, change course, and chart a better future," Payne's court filing states.
However, the newest locations in Destin and Chattanooga have proven to be the worst-performing Party Fowl restaurants.
"In addition to supporting these two locations, the other Party Fowl locations have dealt with inflationary pressure, higher wages and turnover among staff, higher food costs, and lower demand across the restaurant industry," Payne wrote. "It has not been an easy time to be a restaurant — it has been an especially difficult time to be Party Fowl."
Sandy Mazza can be reached via email at smazza@tennessean.com, by calling 615-726-5962, or on Twitter @SandyMazza.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville hot chicken chain Party Fowl seeks bankruptcy protection
