For the longest time, Denny’s has been that place where folks gather to assuage their late-night cravings, hash out unaddressed post-concert thoughts, and make pit stops during road trips to hoard the nachos, onion rings, and wavy-cut fries, all under the familiar, red, and yellow fluorescent glow.
But that era appears to be shifting, with the diner chain following through on a plan it put on the table more than a year ago.
Things started to go down back in October 2024, when Denny’s revealed that it planned to shutter 150 of its restaurants by the end of 2025, with leadership identifying the said locations as having grim turnaround prospects.
Now, if recent reports are anything to go by, those closures have been completed.
Multiple operational changes, including the need for tighter control over spending, a decision to scale back 24-hour service, and maintaining a more streamlined menu, appear to have driven the shutdowns.
Not to mention that this is all happening in the midst of Denny’s wrapping up a $620 million sale that takes the chain private. But the shutdown plan was set in motion before the deal was announced, so there’s no saying what this means for the company.
Interestingly, though, you will not find a public list showing which restaurants have closed and which are still scheduled to shut down. Neither has Denny’s released specifics about which markets took the biggest hit, leaving customers in some areas guessing whether their local spot survived the cuts.
However, there are reports of one confirmed closure that occurred recently at an outlet near the Santa Rosa Bay Area mall. That location had been operating inside the Santa Rosa Plaza, and its quiet shutdown reflected how some closures happened without much fanfare.
But what we do know is that in New Jersey, none of the state’s six locations were affected by the closures. They remain in Avenel, Bordentown, East Brunswick, Galloway, Northfield, and Vineland.
As of this month, Denny’s operates more than 1,300 locations nationwide.