Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is trimming its Maple Street Biscuit Co. footprint yet again, quietly closing two more locations in the quarter ended May 1 and cutting the brand to 52 restaurants. That brings the total Maple Street closures this fiscal year to 16, with the company citing poor operating performance in regulatory filings. The retrenchment comes as Cracker Barrel reports early signs of improvement at its core restaurants while Maple Street's long term role in the portfolio remains an open question.
As reported by the Jacksonville Daily Record, Maple Street was founded in Jacksonville and acquired by Cracker Barrel in 2019. The paper notes that the chain grew to roughly 70 restaurants after the deal, but two locations closed in the quarter ended Aug. 1, 2025, another 14 shut down in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, and two more were closed in the most recent quarter. Company officials did not address Maple Street at all on the June 9 earnings call, the local outlet reported.
Numbers From the Quarter
In its June 9 third quarter release, Cracker Barrel reported $797.4 million in revenue for the quarter and about $2.47 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2026, and the company notes that its restaurant metrics exclude Maple Street, Cracker Barrel said. CEO Julie Masino told investors that "our initiatives to improve operations, deepen guest connection, and enhance profitability continue to gain traction," according to the release. Those disclosures imply Maple Street generated roughly $44 million in revenue over the first nine months of the year, down from about $51.9 million in the same period a year earlier, based on company filings and local reporting.
Closures and Costs Filed With the SEC
Cracker Barrel's Form 10 Q shows that during the first nine months of fiscal 2026 one Cracker Barrel store and sixteen Maple Street locations were closed "because of poor operating performance," and the shutdowns produced about $3.47 million in closing costs, including lease termination fees, MarketScreener notes. The company also recorded charges tied to the MSBC reorganization in its reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted results.
How Maple Street Got Here
Maple Street launched in Jacksonville in 2012 and was bought by Cracker Barrel for $36 million in October 2019 as part of a push into fast casual breakfast and lunch, according to Cracker Barrel. At the time of the sale the brand had roughly 33 restaurants. Cracker Barrel later expanded the concept before the current pullback.
Where the Closures Landed and Why It Matters
Fast Company tracked the affected locations and reported closures in several states, with a particularly large share in Texas, as Cracker Barrel shut down underperforming sites. For Jacksonville, the contraction hits a little harder, since Maple Street started as a hometown success story, and local coverage points out that executives have shared few public details about what they plan to do with the restaurants that remain.
What Comes Next
For now, Cracker Barrel is telling investors its focus is a back to basics turnaround at its namesake stores: tightening operations, bringing back guest favorites and leaning into value. How aggressively it chooses to nurture or further shrink Maple Street is still anyone's guess, leaving customers and employees from Jacksonville to Texas watching to see which locations survive the next round of corporate pruning.
