WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A North Carolina-based icon of Southern comfort food has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a move that follows downsizing that began prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

K&W Cafeterias filed the 80-page petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

Before K&W filed for bankruptcy, it closed restaurants in August in Chapel Hill, Goldsboro, Raleigh, and Salisbury.

It shuttered its experimental K&W Cafe in Clemmons in July 2019 and in High Point in January.

Since celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2012, K&W has gone from 35 restaurants to 18.