Loan record only — SBA data verified, FDD not yet in our corpus
Country Kitchen
Food & Dining · independent · est. —
Country Kitchen is a family-dining restaurant chain serving breakfast, burgers, and homestyle comfort food. Franchisees operate a full-service restaurant with table service for families and travelers.
New to franchising? Start here
A franchise is a business where you (the franchisee) pay a company (the franchisor) for the right to open and run a location using their brand and system — think a local Anytime Fitness or Taco John's owned by a small-business owner, not the corporation.
Before you can buy in, U.S. law requires the franchisor to give you a Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) — a long legal filing covering its fees, finances, and history. The numbers on this page come straight from that document:
- Franchise fee — the one-time cost to buy in.
- Royalty — the ongoing cut of your sales you pay the franchisor.
- Item 20 — how many locations opened and closed, the basis for our verdict (from Proven & strong down to Distressed — or Too new to judge).
The verdict
Not enough disclosure
Distress
No verified FDD extraction to judge from. Any figures shown are labelled sample data or independent federal records.
SBA loan defaults
15.8%
vs 14.8% avg across rated brands
Market density · Minnesota
Thin market
-16% thinner than the national average
Behind the verdict
the record, factor by factor · Item 20
No score available.
Systemwide units
Insufficient trend data.
We hold no Franchise Disclosure Document for Country Kitchen, so this page carries no exit rate, fees, investment range, or Item 19 earnings claim. What it does carry is the federal loan record: every SBA 7(a) and 504 loan made to a Country Kitchen franchisee since 1991 and how each one ended. That is an independent, sourced measure of how the brand's owner-operators actually fared — and for most brands it is the only outcome data that exists publicly.
Brands enter the index this way when they don't register in the states we crawl. We add the filing when we obtain it — see methodology for how coverage is built and what each evidence level means.
The lender's view
SBA 7(a)/504 loan performance · FY1991–present
Banks have made 67 SBA-backed loans to Country Kitchen franchisees since 1992. Of the 57 that have resolved, 15.8% were charged off (defaulted) rather than paid in full, versus 14.8% across 570 rated brands.
15.8%
9 of 57 resolved defaulted
68.3%
avg. charged-off $ ÷ approved $
10.8%
default rate × loss severity
$461,200
what recent franchisees borrowed
66 mo
approval → charge-off, defaulted loans
3 vs 2
distinct banks still lending
Charge-off rate by loan approval year (%)
Loan performance by state
SOURCE: SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA LOAN DATA (DATA.SBA.GOV), FY1991–PRESENT · MATCHED TO COUNTRY KITCHEN BY FRANCHISE NAME · RESOLVED = CHARGED-OFF + PAID-IN-FULL
The owner's side of the deal
FDD × federal loan record
Who finances it
Readycap Lending, Llc
12.8% of this brand's loans
That lender charges off 31.5% of its loans to other franchise brands, vs 14.8% nationally.
Who buys it
81.6%
first-time franchise owners
The rest already owned at least one other franchise. Across the corpus, brands bought mostly by repeat operators charge off at roughly 10% versus 17% for brands sold mostly to newcomers.
Does experience help here?
Not enough resolved loans to split
Computed from 67 SBA 7(a)/504 loans to Country Kitchen franchisees joined to the brand's own FDD. Debt service assumes level amortization at the average disclosed term and rate. A lender's rate excludes its loans to this brand, so it reads the lender, not the brand.
Labor record
US Dept. of Labor enforcement · franchisee-level · FY2005–present
Federal investigators have concluded 40 wage cases against operators of this system, recovering $165K in back wages for 209 workers, including 16 child-labor cases. Some of these cases are recent, not ancient history. These cases name franchisee-owned locations, not the franchisor itself.
Concluded cases
40
Back wages owed
$165K
Employees affected
209
Since 2020
5
16 of these cases involved child-labor violations, covering 76 minors across the system's franchised locations.
Read this carefully. The employers in these cases are individual Country Kitchen franchisees — separately owned businesses operating under the brand name — not Country Kitchen itself. The franchisor is not the respondent and in most cases is not a party. What the record shows is how this system's operators run their payrolls, which is worth knowing before you become one of them. Counts rise with system size and with age: a 20-year-old, 10,000-unit system will out-count a young one regardless of conduct. Source: DOL Wage and Hour Division concluded compliance actions, FY2005–present, most recent finding 2025.
Distress signals
news-sourced · bankruptcies, closures, lawsuits
news:The Quad-City Times · 12mo ago
Arnold’s Country Kitchen closing after 40+ years in Nashville
news:WKRN News 2 · 45mo ago
New Hope Country Kitchen Restaurant Closes After 40-plus Years in Business
news:CCX Media - · 52mo ago
6 questions to ask a Country Kitchen franchisee
Built from this brand's own disclosures · take it to your validation calls
The franchisor will give you a list of owners to call. Most buyers ask whether they like it. These are the questions built from what Country Kitchen has actually disclosed — each one carries the number it came from, so you can tell whether the answer squares with the record.
- 01
Of 57 SBA loans to Country Kitchen franchisees that have finished, 15.8% were charged off — the borrower didn't repay. Did you finance with an SBA loan, and how close did your first two years come to trouble?
This is the lender's view of failure, from public federal records, and it is independent of anything the franchisor discloses.
SBA 7(a)/504 loan record, FY1991–present
- 02
Country Kitchen’s FDD makes no financial performance representation at all — legally, they've told buyers nothing about earnings. What did your first 24 months actually look like, month by month?
When a franchisor won't publish numbers, existing owners are the only source. Silence in Item 19 is a choice, not a requirement.
FDD Item 19 · latest filing
- 03
How many months did it take to cover your own costs, and how much cash did you burn getting there?
Ramp-to-breakeven working capital is the most underestimated line in any franchise purchase, and the most common reason otherwise-good units fail.
Not disclosed in any FDD — ask an owner
- 04
What does the franchisor charge for that you didn't expect — required tech fees, mandatory remodels, approved-supplier pricing?
Required spending appears across Items 6, 8 and 11 rather than in one place, so buyers routinely miss the total.
FDD Items 6, 8, 11
- 05
If your agreement came up for renewal tomorrow at current terms, would you sign again?
The single most predictive question you can ask. A hesitation is the answer.
Ask every owner you speak to
- 06
Who else should I call — including someone who left?
The franchisor's list is curated by definition. Former franchisees are where the unflattering truth lives, and current owners usually know how to reach them.
Ask every owner you speak to
Want this as a checklist you can take to the calls?
I'll email you the printable version, and tell you if Country Kitchen’s numbers move — a new filing, a rising exit rate, a distress signal. Unsubscribe in one click.
A broker is paid by the franchisor to place you. I'm paid by you — and the job is pressure-testing Country Kitchen's numbers, including talking you out of a bad deal.
This page is what buyers see before they call you for validation. If the record above is wrong — or right in a way the numbers can't show — say so. Corrections are checked against the filings; nothing you write is published with your name unless you agree to it.