Smokey Bones closes after bankruptcy filing

Published 2:19 pm Friday, May 1, 2026

Goodbye messages hang on the front doors of Smokey Bones Bar and Fire Grill in Bowling Green on Wednesday, a day after all the Smokey Bones locations across the country closed for good. (JACK DOBBS / Daily News)

The Smokey Bones Bar and Fire Grill restaurant in Bowling Green, and all of the brand’s other locations, have closed after the chain’s parent company, FAT Brands, Inc., declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Smokey Bones’ Bowling Green location on Scottsville Road, the only Smokey Bones still open in Kentucky, closed Tuesday.

A sign was on the front door of the restaurant Wednesday letting visitors know it had closed and thanking them “for the memories.”

“As of yesterday (April 28, 2026), all Smokey Bones locations have ceased operations,” FAT Brands stated to the Daily News. “On behalf of Management, it has been a privilege to serve the Bowling Green community.”

Smokey Bones opened in Bowling Green in March 2002 in a building that was the former home to an Olive Garden Italian Restaurant on Scottsville Road. At the time, the Bowling Green restaurant was the 17th Smokey Bones location to open.

The location remained open through various corporate owners.

A fire tore through the restaurant in September 2015, and firefighters battled the blaze for two days before bringing it fully under control. The fire destroyed sections of the building’s roof and gutted the interior.

The cause of the fire was listed as “undetermined” after an investigation, but said the fire was likely due to “smoking materials” in mulch at the back of the building.

Smokey Bones reopened over a year after the fire in November 2016.

“We built our nicest location in the country right here,” Smokey Bones’ then-CEO Ryan Esko said at the opening.

About Jack Dobbs

Jack covers city government for the Daily News. Originally from Simpson County, he attended Western Kentucky University and graduated in 2022 with a degree in journalism.

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