Shocking! Another One Bites the Dust As Smokey Bones Closes

And another one bites the dust is right!

Grand Rapids Smokey Bones restaurant officially closed it's doors today, to be no more!

It is no secret that our Smokey Bones restaurant wasn't performing very well. After many successful years the parking lot just wasn't very busy anymore. I hadn't been there for some time, and maybe that was the problem, neither had many other people.

A little back story from Parade.com tells of the Smokey Bones being sold a couple of times in the past two years. FAT brands bought it in 2023, then turned it over to Twin Hospitality earlier this year. Talk about a bouncing ball.

Underperforming is always the key operative word in business, and Twin Hospitality identified 15 Smokey Bones locations that were "underperforming" and guess what one of the 15 was? Grand Rapids!

So, closure it was. And, sadly, according to local scuttlebutt, the staff wasn't aware of their demise as of yesterday, September 11. Ouch!

At one time Smokey Bones had 60 restaurants, but after all of the closures, they will be down to a mere 26.

👇 BELOW: WHERE DO WE THINK THE BEST BBQ IS? 👇

Will our Grand Rapids Smokey Bones rise from it ashes to live again in one form or another?

Twin Hospitality actually is transitioning many Smokey Bones existing and closed locations to their Twin Peaks Sports Bar concept. Those locations seem to be performing very well, so, possibly the 28th Street Grand Rapids location will become a Twin Peaks. Who knows!

What is a Twin Peaks restaurant sports bar?

Think Hooters if you're curious as to the Twin Peaks style.