Denny’s Closures in Santa Rosa and Canada: What the $620 Million Buyout Really Means for ‘America’s Diner’

As of November 29, 2025, Denny’s is in the middle of one of the biggest shake‑ups in its 72‑year history. The chain has:

Permanently closed its Coddingtown Mall restaurant in Santa Rosa, California
Confirmed the long‑term closure of its Barrie, Ontario, location in Canada
Continued a wider plan to shutter roughly 150 underperforming restaurants across 2024–2025
Agreed to a $620 million deal to go private under a private‑equity consortium

Here’s how the Santa Rosa and Barrie closures fit into the bigger picture — and what diners, employees and investors should expect next.

Santa Rosa’s Coddingtown Denny’s quietly shuts its doors

In late November, locals in Santa Rosa woke up to find the Denny’s at Coddingtown Mall on West Steele Lane permanently closed. A sign on the door directs guests to another Denny’s on Baker Avenue, now the only remaining Denny’s in the city. ^[1]

Coverage pulled from regional outlets and national explainers notes that the Coddingtown site is already being marketed as a “former Denny’s,” with a full kitchen and dining room available for lease — clear evidence this is not a temporary shutdown. TS2 Tech

The closure also continues a slow thinning of Denny’s presence in California’s North Bay:

A Denny’s in Ukiah closed in 2023 and is being converted into a Habit Burger Grill. ^[2]
A Napa Denny’s shut down in 2022, while locations in Vallejo, Fairfield and Cordelia remain open as of late November 2025. ^[3]

Tabloid coverage from The U.S. Sun framed the Santa Rosa shutdown as part of a plan to shutter as many as 150 underperforming Denny’s locations in the U.S. by the end of 2025, linking the move directly to Denny’s newly announced sale to private investors. ^[4]

Barrie, Ontario: Denny’s Canada confirms long‑term closure

Just as Santa Rosa lost its mall Denny’s, Canadian fans got bad news of their own.

On November 26, Denny’s Canada issued an official press release confirming the long‑term closure of its Barrie, Ontario, restaurant, located at 400 Bayfield Street. ^[5]

Key details from that announcement:

The Barrie location had already been closed since October due to “issues” involving the franchisee and landlord.
After weeks of negotiations, Denny’s Canada said it was unable to reach a solution that would allow the restaurant to reopen. ^[6]
The company thanked staff and guests for two years of business and stressed that it still plans to grow across Ontario and the rest of Canada, hinting that it hopes to serve Barrie again in the future, just not at this site. ^[7]

Denny’s Canada, owned by Northland Properties, still operates 87 restaurants nationwide and is positioning the Barrie closure as a localized real‑estate dispute, not a sign that Canadian operations are being wound down. ^[8]

Orangevale, California: An earlier warning sign

The closures in Santa Rosa and Barrie didn’t come out of nowhere. Earlier in November, another long‑time Denny’s — at 8841 Greenback Lane in Orangevale, near Sacramento — quietly closed as well. ^[9]

Local business coverage and community posts confirmed the Orangevale shutdown, with customers redirected to other nearby locations such as Newcastle. ^[10]

A sensational Sun headline claimed the chain had “shut its doors for good after selling all 1,300 locations,” but that language refers to the company’s move to sell its corporate assets and brand to new owners, not to a literal closure of every restaurant. Denny’s still has over 1,500 locations worldwide, and the vast majority remain open. ^[11]

Denny’s is going private in a $620 million deal

All of these closures are unfolding against the backdrop of a major ownership change.

On November 3–4, Denny’s announced that it had agreed to be acquired and taken private in a deal valued at about $620 million, including debt. ^[12]

The buyer group is a who’s‑who of restaurant investors:

TriArtisan Capital Advisors, a private‑equity firm that backs TGI Fridays and P.F. Chang’s
Treville Capital Group, an alternative‑asset investment firm
Yadav Enterprises, one of Denny’s largest franchisees and the recent buyer of Del Taco ^[13]

Under the terms of the deal:

Shareholders will receive $6.25 per share in cash, a premium of roughly 52% over Denny’s pre‑deal stock price. ^[14]
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, after which Denny’s stock will be delisted from the Nasdaq and the company will become privately held. ^[15]

Financial press and investor notes point out that Denny’s has been under pressure for several quarters:

Domestic system‑wide same‑store sales were down 2.9% year‑over‑year in Q3 2025. ^[16]
The company carried around $278.6 million in total debt as of that same period. ^[17]

The buyout effectively hands control to investors with a track record of aggressive restructuring — and that’s where the closure wave comes in.

Up to 150 restaurants targeted for closure by the end of 2025

Well before the sale was announced, Denny’s executives were clear: the chain needed to shrink before it could grow again.

In late 2024 and early 2025, the company told investors it planned to:

Close roughly 150 of its lowest‑performing restaurants across 2024 and 2025
Shut 88 locations in 2024, many of them older units with relatively low sales
Close another 70 to 90 restaurants in 2025 as leases expire and traffic falls short of expectations ^[18]

Coverage of Denny’s recent closures — including the Santa Rosa and Barrie restaurants — consistently ties them back to this plan. Financial outlets and restaurant‑industry sites describe the process as a deliberate “portfolio clean‑up” ahead of the company’s transition to private ownership. TS2 Tech+1

Some analyses estimate that around 180 locations have already closed nationwide, roughly 10% of the chain’s footprint, when you combine the 2024 and 2025 shutdowns to date. ^[19]

At the same time, Denny’s still plans to open 25–40 new restaurants, split between the core Denny’s brand and Keke’s Breakfast Café, which it acquired in 2022 — meaning the chain is reallocating, not abandoning, its footprint. ^[20]

Why Denny’s is shrinking: sales pressure, shifting habits and rising costs

Behind the headlines are familiar pressures facing nearly every sit‑down restaurant brand:

1. Declining traffic and stale units

Executives have said many of the shuttered stores were 30‑year‑old units with average annual sales under about $1.1 million — locations where trade areas have shifted or the building no longer fits modern expectations. ^[21]

Casual‑dining diners today are gravitating toward fresher concepts, trend‑driven brunch spots, fast‑casual chains and delivery‑focused brands, leaving some legacy diners with lower traffic.

2. A “two‑tier” consumer and value wars

Analysts describe a “two‑tier economy” where higher‑income households still eat out frequently while lower‑ and middle‑income diners trade down, cook at home or hunt aggressively for deals. ^[22]

Brands that lean hard into value — Chili’s, Olive Garden and others — have posted stronger same‑store sales, while mid‑tier chains like Applebee’s, IHOP and Denny’s are fighting for relevance at a time when every dollar counts. ^[23]

3. Labor, rent and security costs

Higher minimum wages, staffing shortages and rising food costs continue to squeeze margins. Some Denny’s locations, including a long‑running restaurant near Oakland International Airport that closed in early 2024, have cited safety concerns and local crime as additional factors. ^[24]

In Barrie, the closure came down to franchisee‑landlord disputes, underscoring how local real‑estate dynamics can decide a restaurant’s fate even when sales are strong enough on paper. ^[25]

Is Denny’s going out of business?

Short answer: no. But it is getting smaller and more tightly controlled.

As of mid‑2025, Denny’s and Keke’s together operated about 1,558 restaurants worldwide, with more than 1,400 Denny’s locations in the U.S. ^[26]
California alone still hosts hundreds of Denny’s, even after multiple Bay Area closures in Oakland and San Francisco and new shutdowns in Orangevale and Santa Rosa. ^[27]
Denny’s Canada continues to run 87 restaurants across the country despite the loss of Barrie. ^[28]

What is happening, rather than a total collapse, is a strategic pruning:

Underperforming or difficult sites (older buildings, tough lease terms, safety concerns) are being shuttered
High‑traffic locations and newly remodeled restaurants are being prioritized
The company is rolling out more remodels, value menus and digital ordering, and leaning on its Keke’s brand and virtual brands like Banda Burrito for growth. ^[29]

How to tell if your local Denny’s might be at risk

Denny’s has not published a public list of locations slated for closure, and company spokespeople routinely decline to name specific stores ahead of time. ^[30]

However, patterns in announced and reported closures suggest you might see a Denny’s at risk if:

It’s an older, standalone building that hasn’t been remodeled in years
It sits in a trade area that has lost traffic (for example, older malls or corridors with rising vacancy)
Local news has highlighted safety or crime issues nearby
The restaurant has irregular hours, frequent temporary closures, or “for lease” signs appearing on property sites

None of these factors guarantee a shutdown, but they show how Denny’s and its new owners are deciding where to invest and where to exit.

What the closures mean for workers and communities

Every closure represents:

Lost jobs for hourly staff and managers
Fewer late‑night and 24/7 dining options for shift workers, travelers and students
Another vacant space in already struggling malls or retail corridors

In Santa Rosa, the Coddingtown shutdown leaves fewer all‑night breakfast options along a busy Highway 101 corridor. TS2 Tech+1

In Barrie, Denny’s Canada is encouraging guests to visit nearby locations in Toronto, Mississauga and Vaughan, but residents still lose a local gathering spot that had marketed itself as a place to “connect over great quality food in a comfortable, welcoming atmosphere.” ^[31]

For workers, Denny’s and its franchisees often try to redeploy staff to nearby restaurants, but that isn’t always possible — particularly when an entire region is seeing multiple closures.

FAQ: Denny’s closures and the buyout, explained

Is Denny’s closing all of its restaurants?
No. Viral posts and some tabloid headlines have implied Denny’s is “shutting all 1,300 restaurants,” but regulatory filings and mainstream reporting show that most locations remain open. The company is closing roughly 150 underperforming units while keeping more than 1,500 restaurants worldwide in operation. ^[32]

Why did Santa Rosa’s Coddingtown Denny’s close?
Denny’s hasn’t given a detailed public explanation, but local and business reporting tie the closure directly to the chain’s broader plan to exit older, lower‑performing units during its transition to private ownership. TS2 Tech+2SSBCrack News+2

What happened in Barrie, Ontario?
Denny’s Canada said it couldn’t resolve operational issues involving the franchisee and landlord and therefore decided to move ahead with a long‑term closure. The company has emphasized its commitment to future growth in Ontario and across Canada. ^[33]

When will the $620 million sale close?
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. At that point, Denny’s shares will be delisted and the company will be fully private. ^[34]

Will more Denny’s restaurants close after 2025?
The company has only given explicit guidance through the end of 2025 (about 150 closures across 2024–2025). Analysts expect further “portfolio optimization” under private ownership, but there is no official public target yet for 2026 and beyond. ^[35]

As of November 29, 2025, the picture is nuanced: Denny’s is shrinking, not disappearing. For diners in Santa Rosa, Barrie, Orangevale and other affected communities, that distinction is cold comfort — but for now, “America’s Diner” remains very much in business, just under new owners and with a smaller, more selectively curated footprint.

Denny’s Closes Santa Rosa Location – What the New Owners Are Planning | Shocking Diner Closure