San Diego-based Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which owns the Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants, will sell its assets to a Washington, D.C. private investment firm as part of its bankruptcy restructuring plan.

The sale, which was approved in bankruptcy court on Monday, is expected to be completed by late January. Garden Fresh said that that once it emerges from Chapter 11 later this month, the restaurants remaining will total between 90 and 104.

No significant changes to its day-to-day operations are anticipated, said Garden Fresh, which operates more than 100 company-owned restaurants in 11 states.

Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., a San Diego-based company that owns and operates 123 Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants in the U.S., filed Monday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.


At the time of last year’s bankruptcy filing, Garden Fresh received the court’s approval to close 20 restaurants, including its stores in Utah and Kansas City, as well as multiple locations in Chicago and Dallas. The company didn’t anticipate then that it would need to close any of its Southern California locations.

“This challenging, but necessary, process has created a stronger financial foundation,” said John Morberg, Garden Fresh CEO. “Through our partnership with new owners, we plan to accelerate the guest-focused efforts we’ve been making to refresh our brands.”

Purchasing Garden Fresh are affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P., which has more than $30 billion invested in companies across multiple sectors throughout the world.

Garden Fresh’s bankruptcy filing last October followed an unsuccessful attempt to sell the company and was part of a corporate overhaul intended to eliminate millions of dollars of debt and return the business to profitability.


Started in 1978, Garden Fresh originated as a single, San Diego Souplantation location, and in 1986, expanded to the broader Southern California region, which continues to remain the core of the business. In 1990, the company expanded, adding a Palm Harbor, Fla., location under a separate brand name, Sweet Tomatoes.

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2251 Twitter:@loriweisberg

