41 jobs lost as Bethesda’s True Food Kitchen closes amid bankruptcy filing

A staple for healthy comfort food in Bethesda is no more.

True Food Kitchen, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based restaurant chain with a location in downtown Bethesda, announced Monday that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It shuttered 12 of its 46 restaurants around the country on Sunday.

As a result, 41 people lost their jobs at the Bethesda location.

True Food Kitchen is searching for a long-term partner to sustain it in the future as part of a court-supervised sale process, the company said in a statement.

“This process is the best path forward to simplify the business and focus on what we do best: delivering craveable, health-forward food and genuine hospitality,” True Food Kitchen CEO Jeff Chandler said in the statement. “We are confident this step will help us build a stronger True Food Kitchen for the future.”

“We know these decisions are especially hard on the team members affected, and we are deeply grateful for their contributions to True Food Kitchen and their communities,” Chandler added.

Rumors of a possible closure have been swirling since this summer, when building owner Solaire Bethesda listed the 6,500-square-foot restaurant space for rent.

When restaurateur Sam Fox and wellness author Dr. Andrew Weil, M.D., opened True Food Kitchen in 2008 as a hub for tasty dishes with simple ingredients, wellness-centric restaurants were few and far between. Oprah Winfrey, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Nick and Priyanka Chopra Jonas were among its high-profile investors.

But as the wellness industry has skyrocketed over the last few years, Bethesda has welcomed a number of new successful, health-centric food spots, including vegan cafe Rooted3, juice spots Pure Green and Puree Juice Bar, seasonal comfort food shop Dig Inn, cafe Eat Sprout, plant-based restaurant Planta and healthy on-the-go chains Sweetgreen, Chopt and Cava.