Marmalade Cafe, the Santa Monica-born chain that once served breakfasts and lunches at eight locations across Los Angeles County, filed for Subchapter V Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 2.

Chief Executive Juan Salcedo listed estimated assets and liabilities between $1 million and $10 million in the filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported. The filing identified 20 creditors owed a combined $2.4 million in unsecured debt.

Four locations remain open: El Segundo, Malibu, Sherman Oaks and Westlake Village.

Lindsay Arnold, Marmalade Cafe's director of operations, pointed to the chain's Calabasas location as the tipping point. That store, where rent ran just under $80,000 a month, closed Aug. 31 after 28 years at The Commons at Calabasas. Arnold told the Los Angeles Times that a construction project at the shopping center slashed monthly sales by $50,000 and wrecked the parking lot.

Arnold said the construction hit especially hard at a breakfast-and-lunch spot that depended on quick turnover. "By about May and June, we were like, 'This is going to sink our whole company. We can't do this,'" she told the Times.

The LA Times reported that developer Caruso is behind The Commons at Calabasas and did not respond to the newspaper's request for comment.

Selwyn Yosslowitz, Robert Burns Jr. and Bonnie Burns founded the original cafe on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica in 1990. It started as a 1,400-square-foot shop with a bakery, salads and entrees. Three years later, the founders opened a 100-seat full-service location in Malibu, and the chain eventually grew to eight branches.

In 2007, Dallas-based private equity firm Parallel Investment Partners made an undisclosed investment, and the brand planned to expand beyond Southern California. That expansion never happened.

The pandemic accelerated the decline. Marmalade closed two stores in 2024 and two more in 2026, including its Original Farmers Market location and its Santa Monica outpost, where losses tied to the 2025 Palisades fire compounded the pressure. The chain's workforce shrank from more than 200 employees to roughly 50 by mid-2026, according to Dealroom.

The biggest creditors listed in the filing include Gilmore Farmers Market, owed $481,150; U.S. Foods, owed $394,711; and the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), owed $349,014.

Marmalade Cafe joins a growing list of LA-rooted restaurant brands in financial distress. FAT Brands, the Beverly Hills-based parent of Fatburger and Johnny Rockets, filed for Chapter 11 earlier in 2026. In April, La Palma-based Friendly Franchisees Corp., one of California's largest Carl's Jr. operators, did the same.

Arnold told the Times she believes the four surviving locations, which she called long-term community fixtures, will stay open. No date for a reorganization plan or creditor meeting has been announced.