Why Is Denny’s Closing? Check List Of Closed Stores Across The Country

America’s Denny’s Chain, a longtime mainstay in both family dining establishments and as one of the pioneer “late-night” breakfast restaurants, serves its final breakfasts due to a large number of closures across the country. Denny’s has also announced plans for a mass closure of around 150 restaurants across the United States by the end of the year. 

Also, close many of its poorly performing locations as part of a significant transformation plan with the goal of returning to profitability and reinvigorating the brand. However, Denny’s mass closures are more than just a reaction to the growing trend in consumer purchasing behaviour (moving to fast casual or food delivery). 

This is also a consequence of increasing inflation and labour costs, as well as the interruptions caused by COVID-19, which have led to lower foot traffic to restaurants. As a result, the pressures to strategically readjust have forced a nearly 70-year-old brand to consider new options for the future. 

Why Is Denny’s Closing?

According to the chain’s executive leadership, most of the stores on the list will be closed because they constitute a significant amount of low sales. Because of this, they also cannot continue as viable, sustainable stores. Some of these stores are extremely old, with many needing extensive renovations and due to the property leases ending, the decision was made not to extend the leases.

After the pandemic, many patrons now prefer a model of fast-casual, takeout or delivery as their form of dining, moving away from the 24-hour-a-day breakfast and late-night diner model of traditional full-service diners.

The combination of rising food, labour, and utility costs, as well as the increase in inflation for restaurants compared to grocery inflation, is discouraging consumers from dining out as often as they previously had. Below is some more information about the Denny’s Closing Reasons, a list of closed stores. 

List of Closed / Closing Stores

Denny’ s does not have a complete list of all of its closures, but we are providing you with some of the specific closure locations, especially in states such as Florida and Texas, as they were made public.

• Texas closures included a restaurant located at “601 Avenue Q in Lubbock” and another on “I-35 N Frontage Road in New Braunfels,” which were both part of the 2025 Denny’s closure wave.
• In addition to these closures, there are some previously closed Denny’s locations (in New Braunfels, Texas), which have been transformed into new restaurants, including at least one that is now a sushi/ramen buffet, indicating a change in usage for these properties and real estate assets.
• According to reports from late 2025, Denny’s is nearing the completion of its closure plan for 150 of the chain’s locations.

However, it is important to note that many closures are based on local decisions by franchise owners, the expiration of leases on the locations, and the relatively low level of customer traffic. Due to the lack of a complete list of Denny’s closures, the publicly available list of “closed stores” is incomplete and therefore does not represent the total number of restaurants that have closed.

Reasons Behind Denny’s Closure

Low-performing / low-volume locations: the company representatives have publicly stated that the majority of the locations being closed at this time are lower in sales than other Denny’s restaurants and continue to be unprofitable or unable to maintain profitability on an ongoing basis (i.e., cannot maintain their current level of sales).

Older restaurants/lease expiration: several locations are multiple decades old, requiring significant amounts of capital (i.e., capital spent on renovations) to remodel; and some Denny’s locations are on leases that are nearing their end date, and the company made a business decision not to extend those leases.

Changes in consumer preferences: the pandemic has brought about changes in consumer preferences toward takeout and delivery versus traditional full-service dining (i.e., sit-down meals with a waiter or waitress); the full-service diner model (e.g., 24/7 pancake breakfasts and late-night comfort food) has diminished in popularity in general.

Rising costs / inflationary pressures: the company has experienced rising costs for food and labour. Rising food and utility costs have pressured margins due to inflation (as well as restaurant inflation being greater than grocery store inflation), causing many customers to dine less frequently than they used to (i.e. dine out less often than before).

Financial Performance, Earnings, Profits & Loss

As indicated in Denny’s most recent results for the fiscal year 2024, the restaurant chain has been facing multiple challenges in Q4 2024 and has initiated a turnaround strategy for the future.

Over the course of FY 2024, Denny’s has closed 88 locations, net of 74, as part of their strategy to reduce their overall number of locations; this includes both seasonal and permanent closures.

Why Is Denny’s Closing? – Main Reason

The recently announced closings at Denny’s are not indicative of an impending bankruptcy or collapse of the company. Rather, they are part of a broader strategy to restructure Denny’s operations to focus on the more profitable locations with higher customer traffic. All the required information are presented in this article. 

FAQ’s On Why Is Denny’s Closing?