FAT Brands Inc. is an American multi-brand restaurant operator headquartered in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

History

FAT Brands began as a holding company for

Fatburger Fatburger North America Inc. (doing business as Fatburger) is an American fast casual restaurant chain owned by FAT Brands. Its tagline is ''The Last Great Hamburger Stand''. While it is a fast-food restaurant, the food is cooked and made to o ...

in 2017, gaining a chairman in Ed Rensi. On August 13, 2020, Johnny Rockets was acquired by FAT Brands for $25 million. In July 2021, FAT purchased Global Franchise Group, now owning

Round Table Pizza Round Table Pizza is a Restaurant chain, chain and Franchising, franchise of pizza parlors in the Western United States. The first Round Table Pizza restaurant was opened in 1959, and the company has over 400 restaurants. The company is headquarte ...

Hot Dog on a Stick Hot Dog on a Stick is a fast food company that was founded by Dave Barham in Santa Monica, California, in 1946, and later branched out into malls and shopping centers. From 2014 to 2021, the company was owned by Global Franchise Group based ...

, Great American Cookies, Pretzelmaker and Marble Slab Creamery. On September 1, 2021, FAT Brands announced that it would acquire

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Surrealist cinema, surrealist Mystery film, mystery-Horror film, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It Pilot (Twin Peaks), premiered on American Broad ...

, for $300 million. The acquisition was completed on October 1. In May 2022, it was announced FAT Brands had acquired the franchised chain,

Nestlé Toll House Café Nestlé Toll House Café was a franchise in the United States and Canada founded by Ziad Dalal and his partner Doyle Liesenfelt. The two started Crest Foods, Inc. D/B/A "Nestlé Toll House Café by Chip" in 2000 in Dallas, Texas. Crest Foods, the ...

for an undisclosed sum, and plans to convert all 86 locations to Great American Cookies locations. In September, 2023 FAT purchased Smokey Bones from Sun Capital Partners for $30 million. In 2024, Andrew Wiederhorn, ex-CEO, current controlling shareholder, and Chairman of the Board of FAT Brands, was indicted on federal criminal charges, accused of taking $47 million in shareholder loans for his personal benefit which were then never paid back, also concealing millions of dollars in reportable compensation and taxable income from the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

. Former CFO Rebecca D. Hershinger was also accused of assisting Wiederhorn in the scheme. The Board of Directors was never informed about the "loans", Fat Brands never disclosed them as related party transactions to investors, and they were written off after the company merged with its largest shareholder, Fog Cutter Capital Group (also majority-owned by Wiederhorn), in 2020. The

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

and the U.S. Attorneys Office for California had previously opened investigations into the company and Wiederhorn in 2021, and Wiederhorn had resigned as CEO in 2023 as a result of the investigation, later restructuring the Board of Directors with members under his control.

Brands

As of May 2022, FAT Brands own the following chains: * Buffalo's Café * Elevation Burger *

Fazoli's Fazoli's System Management, LLC., or Fazoli's, is an American fast casual restaurant chain headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. It was founded in 1988 and is now owned by FAT Brands. As of December 2024, there are 195 Fazoli's locations nation ...

* Great American Cookies *

* Hurricane Grill & Wings * Johnny Rockets * Marble Slab Creamery * Native Grill & Wings * Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouses * Pretzelmaker *

* Smokey Bones *

* Yalla Mediterranean

References

External links

Official website
Companies based in Beverly Hills, California Restaurant chains in the United States Restaurants established in 2017 American companies established in 2017 Companies listed on the Nasdaq 2017 establishments in California {{US-company-stub