Yardbird bankruptcy filing opens court sale process

Yardbird bankruptcy filings landed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on September 21, 2026, as Yardbird Group LLC and ten affiliated entities sought Chapter 11 protection for the Southern Table & Bar restaurant chain, according to court records.

The Yardbird bankruptcy filing

Yardbird Group LLC and its ten affiliates filed jointly administered Chapter 11 petitions under case number 1:26-bk-11479, court records show. The petition was signed by Albert Altro in his capacity as Chief Restructuring Officer, according to the filing. The case was assigned to Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon, according to court records reviewed by bankruptcy tracking service Elevenflo.

Chapter 11 filings differ from liquidation: Yardbird's affiliates now face a court-supervised sale process, not an automatic shutdown.

The company listed about $25 million in secured debt and about $25 million in unsecured claims, according to Law360 Bankruptcy Authority and TheStreet, which reviewed the petition. Estimated creditors number between 1,000 and 5,000, court documents show.

The company is pursuing a court-supervised sale of its assets, according to the filing. It has requested debtor-in-possession financing and authority to use cash collateral to continue operations during the case, according to court records. A bid-procedures hearing is scheduled for October 8, with a bid deadline of October 27 and an auction set for November 2, subject to court approval, according to case filings tracked by Elevenflo.

What happens to the restaurants

The filing follows the closure of three Yardbird restaurants over the past year, according to prior reporting. The original Miami Beach location, which opened in 2011, closed on August 5, 2026, after more than a decade in business, according to Hoodline and World Red Eye. The Los Angeles restaurant at the Beverly Center and the Denver location in the RiNo district have also closed; Denver shut down in October 2025 after missing rent payments, according to BusinessDen.

Restaurants in Las Vegas, Chicago, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Washington D.C. and Singapore continue to operate, according to affiliated-entity filings and prior reporting. The Chapter 11 case does not by itself close any additional location, court records show.

The filing is one of several restaurant bankruptcies reported this year, including Red Lobster's closures and a bankruptcy filing by the Osaka restaurant group behind LIAISON.

Yardbird opened its first restaurant in Miami Beach in 2011, founded by chef Jeff McInnis with restaurateurs John Kunkel and Chris Romero, according to the company's history as recorded by Wikipedia and contemporary press coverage. The chain later expanded to Las Vegas, Singapore, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington D.C. between 2015 and 2021.

The bankruptcy court's bid-procedures hearing on October 8 will set the timeline for prospective buyers to submit offers for Yardbird's remaining restaurants, according to case filings.