Did Firehouse Subs Go Out of Business? Closures Explained

Eric DawsonByEric Dawson Business

Firehouse Subs has not gone out of business. The sandwich chain finished 2025 with 1,449 restaurants systemwide, and parent company Restaurant Brands International reported 8.6 percent sales growth to $1.3 billion for the year. Some individual franchise locations have closed, and an 11-restaurant franchise group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2026. Those events involve specific stores and one operator group, not the national brand itself.

Has Firehouse Subs Gone Out of Business

No, Firehouse Subs remains an active and growing restaurant chain. Restaurant Brands International’s fiscal year 2025 results show the brand ending the year with 1,449 total locations after 104 net new restaurant openings, described by the company as the strongest net restaurant expansion in more than a decade.

Systemwide sales rose 8.6 percent to $1.3 billion, same-store sales in the United States grew 1 percent, and net restaurant growth reached 7.7 percent for the year. Those figures describe a chain opening more restaurants than it is losing, even though the closures covered later in this article are real.

The confusion behind this question traces back to two separate stories from early 2026. News of a Utah-based franchisee’s bankruptcy filing spread quickly online, and local news coverage of single-restaurant closures in Washington, Maryland and New York added to the impression that something was wrong company-wide. Franchise-level financial trouble and scattered store closures happen in almost any chain approaching 1,500 locations, and neither one means the brand itself is failing.

How Many Firehouse Subs Locations Are Open Now

Firehouse Subs operated 1,449 locations worldwide as of December 31, 2025, according to Restaurant Brands International’s year-end report. About 1,250 of those are franchised restaurants in the United States, with the remainder made up of company-operated and international locations.

Two sources describe 2025 store openings somewhat differently, and it is worth explaining why. Restaurant Brands International’s own year-end results credit the brand with 104 net new restaurants in 2025. Trade publication Restaurant Dive, covering the chain’s franchise development program earlier in the year, cited a growth trajectory of 21 net openings in 2023, 36 in 2024 and 43 in 2025.

That trade-press figure reads like a development target set before the year closed, rather than a final count. Because the year-end number comes directly from the parent company’s own reporting, it is the more reliable figure for how many restaurants actually opened in 2025.

Metric 2024 2025
Systemwide sales growth not broken out separately up 8.6% to $1.3 billion
Same-store U.S. sales growth not broken out separately up 1%
Net restaurant growth not broken out separately up 7.7% to 1,449 locations
Net new openings (franchise development trajectory) 36 locations 43 locations

Which Firehouse Subs Locations Have Closed Recently

Several individual Firehouse Subs restaurants have closed since 2024, and each closure traces to reasons specific to that location rather than a company-wide retreat.

West Richland and Burbank in Washington

Firehouse Subs closed its West Richland, Washington restaurant in 2024, and the company cited unforeseen circumstances as the official reason without elaborating further. A second Tri-Cities-area location in Burbank, Washington also closed, and community members pointed to elevated menu pricing as the likely cause, though that explanation came from customer speculation rather than an official company statement.

Social media speculation at the time suggested three additional Tri-Cities restaurants would close as well, a claim reported by RetailWire. Firehouse Subs did not confirm that speculation, and whether those three locations actually closed remains unconfirmed. Readers in the area should treat that particular claim as unconfirmed.

Westfield Wheaton in Maryland

The Firehouse Subs inside the Westfield Wheaton mall food court in Montgomery County, Maryland closed permanently around February 2026, after operating there for roughly two years since its February 2024 opening.

Ithaca in New York

Firehouse Subs’ restaurant in Ithaca, New York closed permanently as of January 2025, according to the local outlet 14850 Dining. No specific closing date within January or stated reason for the closure appears in the available reporting.

A figure circulating in some search results puts total 2025 U.S. closures at around 21 locations. That number comes from a search snippet rather than a named, verifiable publication, so it should be treated as an unconfirmed estimate rather than a confirmed company figure.

Why Did a Firehouse Subs Franchisee File for Bankruptcy

CN Holdings LLC, a multi-unit Firehouse Subs franchisee operating in Idaho and Utah, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 23, 2026, in the District of Utah. The filing, reported by Nation’s Restaurant News, cited a significant amount of debt following delayed construction of two new restaurants as the stated cause.

The company was run by operators Chris Morris and Natalie Bosworth and had grown to 11 restaurants at its peak. At least one of those restaurants had already closed before the bankruptcy filing. Court filings list liabilities between $1 million and $10 million owed to fewer than 50 creditors, against company assets of no more than $50,000.

Which Locations Were Affected

CN Holdings operated Firehouse Subs restaurants in five cities across two states.

Location State
Idaho Falls Idaho
Pocatello Idaho
Ammon Idaho
Layton Utah
Salt Lake City Utah

What Happens to the Affected Restaurants

Their plan is to sell the unprofitable restaurants and restructure the ones they keep, rather than shut down the entire operation. The math behind that plan is worth spelling out.

If the reported liabilities of $1 million to $10 million are spread across the 11 restaurants the company once operated, that works out to roughly $91,000 to $910,000 of debt per location, measured against total company assets of $50,000 or less. A gap that wide between debt and assets explains why a partial sale, rather than a full shutdown or a full turnaround, is the plan the operators have proposed.

The specific restaurants CN Holdings has sold or closed since the March filing have not been confirmed.

For a Firehouse Subs franchisee bankruptcy, I would start by confirming the specific restaurant rather than letting the filing do all the talking. In 2011 in the Dayton suburbs, I processed about 40 move-outs at an apartment-property office, where tenants most often disputed early termination, carpet cleaning, and a flat “admin” fee; the surprise was usually buried in the lease, which is apparently where clarity goes to take a nap.

What Does Filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Mean for a Franchisee

Chapter 11 bankruptcy lets a company keep operating while it reorganizes its debts, rather than shutting down immediately. Unlike Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which liquidates a business and sells off its assets, Chapter 11 centers on a reorganization plan that a bankruptcy court approves, giving the debtor time to renegotiate with creditors, cut unprofitable locations and keep the rest of the business running.

For a restaurant franchisee like CN Holdings, that distinction matters directly to employees and customers. Restaurants tied to the filing can keep serving customers and paying staff while the court process plays out, and closures happen selectively rather than all at once. The franchise agreement between CN Holdings and Firehouse Subs corporate is a separate matter from the bankruptcy filing itself, and nothing in the sources reviewed indicates the parent company has terminated CN Holdings’ franchise rights.

Bankruptcy filings by individual franchisees are not unusual in large restaurant systems, and they rarely reflect on the brand as a whole. A franchisee’s debt load depends on how that specific operator financed construction, staffing and rent, decisions made independently of how Firehouse Subs corporate is performing nationally.

Is Firehouse Subs Growing or Shrinking

Firehouse Subs is growing at the company level, even as one franchise group struggles and individual restaurants close. Restaurant Brands International is actively paying franchisees to open more locations through a set of incentive programs running through 2028.

A franchisee who commits to building one new restaurant by 2028 can receive a $75,000 incentive. Operators who develop at least two restaurants can receive $100,000 per restaurant.

The program called “10 in 2 Incentive” pays $100,000 per opening to franchisees who develop at least 10 restaurants in 2027 and 2028, with a potential $500,000 bonus after the tenth location. A separate incentive called “Grow A-Gain” offers $150,000 per opening to high-performing operators, graded “A”, who have not opened a new store in five years, provided they commit to at least two units by the end of 2028.

Franchisees building three or more restaurants in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia or Seattle can qualify for the Target Market Incentive, worth $150,000 per opening plus a 2 percent royalty discount for three years.

What Is Driving the Recent Closures

The closures reported so far trace to a mix of pricing pressure, franchisee debt and undisclosed local factors, not a single company-wide cause. Customers in Washington state pointed to menu pricing as their reason for avoiding the West Richland and Burbank locations before they closed, though Firehouse Subs itself never confirmed pricing as an official cause.

CN Holdings’ bankruptcy filing points to a more specific problem: debt taken on during delayed construction of new restaurants, which strained a franchise group that had grown quickly to 11 units. The Maryland and New York closures came with no stated reason at all in the local coverage available.

Put together, these look like the normal growing pains of a franchise system expanding by more than 100 net restaurants a year. Some operators overextend, some locations lose their customer base to pricing or competition, and a company the size of Firehouse Subs will always have a handful of closures running alongside its openings.

How to Check Whether Your Local Firehouse Subs Is Still Open

The fastest way to confirm a specific Firehouse Subs location is still operating is the chain’s own store locator, not a social media rumor or an old review. A short check before driving over avoids a wasted trip.

  1. Search the store locator: Go to firehousesubs.com and use the store locator to search by zip code or city, which shows current hours for every open restaurant.
  2. Call ahead: Phone numbers listed on the store locator page reach the individual restaurant directly, and a disconnected or unanswered line during posted business hours is worth following up on.
  3. Check the map listing: Search the restaurant’s name in a mapping app and look for recent photos, reviews or a permanently closed label, which platforms typically add once enough visitors report a closure.
  4. Look at local social media: Individual Firehouse Subs franchisees sometimes post closure notices directly on their own pages, as several Washington state locations did.

None of these steps is foolproof by itself, but combining two of them, such as the store locator and a phone call, gives a reliable answer within a few minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Firehouse Subs Going Out of Business?

No. The chain ended 2025 with 1,449 locations and 8.6 percent systemwide sales growth to $1.3 billion, according to parent company Restaurant Brands International. Individual restaurant closures and one franchisee’s bankruptcy filing are separate from the health of the overall brand.

Which Firehouse Subs Locations Have Closed?

Confirmed closures include West Richland and Burbank in Washington, a Westfield Wheaton food court location in Maryland, and a restaurant in Ithaca, New York. A multi-unit franchisee also closed at least one of its 11 Idaho and Utah restaurants before filing for bankruptcy in March 2026.

Did Firehouse Subs File for Bankruptcy?

Firehouse Subs as a company has not filed for bankruptcy. CN Holdings, a franchise operator running 11 restaurants in Idaho and Utah at its peak, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2026 because of debt tied to delayed restaurant construction.

Is Firehouse Subs Opening New Restaurants?

Yes. Restaurant Brands International reported 104 net new Firehouse Subs restaurants in 2025 and runs several franchise incentive programs, worth up to $150,000 per opening, to encourage more development through 2028.

Were Three More Washington Locations Confirmed Closed?

No. Rumors in July 2024 held that three additional Tri-Cities, Washington, restaurants could close within the following weeks, but their closures were not confirmed.

Firehouse Subs is a growing chain with a small number of local closures and one franchisee’s financial trouble mixed in, not a company headed toward collapse. Readers who see a specific location has closed are seeing a franchise-level or lease-level decision, not a signal about the brand’s national health.

References

Sources read in September 2026.

Eric Dawson

I'm Eric Dawson, and I write The Money Watch from north Columbus, Ohio. Most of what I cover comes from my own life: renting, a 2014 Honda Fit, parking, computers, food and the bills behind all of it. I spent four years in an apartment-property office and eleven on a distributor's operations desk, reading leases and invoices. Where you need real information, I research the maker's or agency's own page and independent sources and report what they publish. I don't give tax, investment, legal or medical advice.