closed<\/a> last year.<\/p>\nOn Wednesday, Smokey Bones\u2019 website no longer featured a map of its locations and attempts to place online orders or book reservations led to a blank page. The website included a statement bidding farewell to customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just the end of a restaurant \u2014 it\u2019s the closing of a chapter filled with shared meals, celebrations, traditions, and countless memories,\u201d it read. \u201cWhile the smokers have cooled and the doors are closed, the spirit of what we built together will always stay with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
FAT Brands Inc. filed for bankruptcy Jan. 26 in Texas. At the time, it operated 2,200 locations globally across its 18 restaurant brands, including the Twin Peaks sports bar chain and diner-themed Johnny Rocket\u2019s, the company said in a January news release announcing its bankruptcy filing.<\/p>\n
Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, creators of Olive Garden and Red Lobster, founded Smokey Bones in 1999 with the goal of turning it into the first national barbecue chain. By 2006, Darden had built 127 Smokey Bones Barbecue & Grill locations, primarily in Florida, the Southeast and Midwest.<\/p>\n
But at about the same time, Darden reported that sales had rapidly fallen at the chain, saying that surveys found women were turned off by its sports bar theme and barbecue focus, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported last year. Darden announced plans to reduce the chain\u2019s emphasis on meat products and add salads, wraps, and grilled chicken dishes to its menu.<\/p>\n
In late 2007, Darden closed 54 Smokey Bones and sold the remaining 73 locations. The chain was sold to FAT Brands in 2023. FAT Brands then spun off the Smokey Bones and Twin Peaks chains into a subsidiary called Twin Hospitality Group, according to the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All Smokey Bones locations have shut down, including the last one in the Tampa Bay area. \u00a9Ricardo Ramirez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[69144,111139,111140,110467,135,9019,137,136],"class_list":["post-255623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-darden-restaurants","tag-fat-brands-inc","tag-florida-locations","tag-smokey-bones","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-area","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"All](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/82562bab180940a7600904b0645b9754.jpeg\")
All Smokey Bones locations have shut down, including the last one in the Tampa Bay area. \u00a9Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda <\/p>\n