Five Denny’s restaurants across Minnesota and Wisconsin closed on the morning of September 3, 2026, after their franchisee, M15 Inc., told employees the day before that it no longer had the money to keep them open.
Key facts
- What closed: All 5 Denny’s restaurants run by franchisee M15 Inc. in Minnesota and Wisconsin
- Where: Burnsville, Maplewood, Roseville, North Branch (Minnesota) and Hudson (Wisconsin)
- When: Workers notified September 2, 2026; restaurants closed the next morning, around 7 a.m.
- Why: M15 Inc. said it had taken on unsustainable debt and could no longer cover payroll or supplies
- Final pay: Not guaranteed; no severance offered
- Bankruptcy: M15 says it plans to file Chapter 7; no petition has been confirmed as filed yet
Which locations closed
All five restaurants were operated by the same franchise group, M15 Inc., which had run roughly a dozen Denny’s restaurants across Minnesota, Wisconsin and California:
- Burnsville, Minnesota
- Maplewood, Minnesota
- Roseville, Minnesota
- North Branch, Minnesota
- Hudson, Wisconsin
It isn’t clear what has happened to M15’s other locations, including any in California, since these five closed.
Not the 2024-2025 closures
This is a separate event from Denny’s much larger closure wave in 2024 and 2025, when the company shut roughly 150 underperforming restaurants nationwide as part of a broader effort to raise its average sales per location. That earlier round was a company-wide cleanup; this one is the collapse of a single franchisee’s finances.
Restaurants still open nearby
Denny’s still has a presence in the area. Its own location finder shows eight restaurants remaining open in Minnesota:
- Apple Valley
- Blaine
- Bloomington
- Otsego
- Rochester
- Rogers
- St. Paul
- West St. Paul
Another 18 locations are still open in Wisconsin, most of them around Madison and Milwaukee.
How the shutdown happened
Workers found out fast and with almost no warning: M15 notified staff on September 2, and the restaurants closed at about 7 a.m. the next morning. The company told employees it had taken on more debt than it could handle over the prior year, was facing collection efforts from its lenders, and could no longer cover payroll or buy food and supplies.
Final pay left uncertain
Final paychecks were not guaranteed. M15 told terminated staff it could not promise there would be enough money to cover their last paychecks and pointed them toward state unemployment benefits instead. No severance was offered. Whether workers ever received those final wages remains an open question.
Minnesota workers’ legal options
Minnesota law gives affected workers a specific tool here. Under Minnesota Statute 181.13, a discharged worker can make a written demand for wages already earned but not yet paid. Once that demand is made, the employer must pay immediately — and if it doesn’t, the law adds a penalty for each day the wages stay unpaid, up to 15 days. Separately, Minnesota Statute 181.93 requires an employer to tell its employees in writing right away if it files for bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy status
M15 Inc. has retained bankruptcy counsel and says it plans to file for Chapter 7, which would liquidate the company. No petition has been filed and no court docket number exists as of September 10, 2026.
Community response
One person stepping in for former workers is Travis Eaton, whose mother ran the Maplewood restaurant for more than 40 years. He started a GoFundMe campaign describing the sudden end of “decades of steady operation” and raising support for the terminated employees.
What Denny’s corporate says
Denny’s corporate office, which franchises the restaurants but did not operate them directly, said it is “working with urgency alongside our franchise network to explore every viable path to reopen as many of these restaurants as we can” — language that commits to no specific restaurant, no new owner and no timeline. No new owner or reopening date has been announced for any of the five locations.