True Food Kitchen shut its doors at 7100 Wisconsin Ave. on Sunday, Oct. 4, ending a nearly decade-long run in downtown Bethesda.

The health-focused restaurant was one of 12 locations the chain closed the same day it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, MoCo Show reported. The company reported roughly $42 million in debt, according to Business Insider, citing management turnover and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bethesda location opened in late spring 2017 on the ground floor of the Solaire Bethesda apartment complex. The 6,500-square-foot space had been listed for lease by Willard Retail as early as June, months before the closure became official.

A posted notice thanked the community. It also directed employees to the scheduling platform HotSchedules for additional information.

True Food Kitchen's remaining 34 locations across 14 states will keep operating, including the chain's other Montgomery County restaurant at Rio in Gaithersburg, which opened in 2022. The 12 closures represent nearly one-quarter of the chain's total footprint.

CEO Jeff Chandler, a former Hopdoddy chief executive hired in July, called the bankruptcy filing "the best path forward to simplify the business."

The company's court filings blamed the financial trouble in part on leadership churn and on investing capital outside its core markets in restaurant concepts that were unsuccessful. Previous CEO John Williams resigned in December 2024, and interim CEO Jim Dunn held the role until January 2026 before Chandler took over, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Systemwide sales peaked at $314 million in 2024 before slipping to $312 million in 2025, the chain's first year of declining sales.

Founded in 2008 by wellness author Andrew Weil and restaurateur Sam Fox, True Food Kitchen once counted Oprah Winfrey among its board members after she made an equity investment in 2018. A company spokesperson told Business Insider that Winfrey is no longer on the board but remains a minority investor.

To fund operations during the restructuring, the company secured about $20 million in debtor-in-possession financing from investor HumanCo, subject to court approval. True Food Kitchen plans to pursue a court-supervised sale to find a long-term partner for the brand.

No replacement tenant has been announced for the Wisconsin Avenue space.