Acquisitions
When an owner steps back, the restaurant shouldn't close.
Most independent restaurants never find a buyer. We buy good ones and keep what made them good: the menu, the team, the name. The back office moves to Garde on day one.
Confidential. A first call is thirty minutes and commits you to nothing.
Why
The exit independents never had
Chains get bought. Independents get closed. An owner who has run a neighborhood restaurant for fifteen years usually has two options when they are done: find a buyer who changes everything, or turn off the lights. Brokers rarely bother below a few million in sales, and banks will not finance the manager who could take it over.
We are the third option. We already run the back office for dozens of restaurant groups, so we know what a well-run independent looks like in the numbers and what it takes to keep one running. We buy restaurants that work and leave the parts that work alone.
Very little changes for your guests and your team. What changes is who carries the bookkeeping, the payroll, the bills and the worry. Your own role afterward is your call: exit fully, stay on as a partner with a stake, or keep running the floor with a salary and upside.
What we look for
Restaurants with a following and a team, where better books and steadier capital are the upside. Not turnarounds that need a new concept.
- Three or more years open.Repeat customers, a neighborhood that knows the name, and sales that have held through at least one bad season.
- $750K to $5M in annual sales per location.Single units and small groups of up to five.
- A team that stays.A kitchen lead and a floor lead who want to keep working there. Your role is flexible. The team's continuity is not.
- Prime cost that books can fix.Food and labor at or near 65 percent of sales, or clearly fixable with purchasing discipline and scheduling, which is what Garde does.
- New York City first.Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan today. The Northeast corridor next. We want to be able to walk in.
- Any cuisine.Our portfolio starts with Vietnamese fusion in Bushwick. What we care about is how the restaurant runs, not what it serves.
Four ways to do the deal
Price matters, but so does what you do the day after. Each structure answers a different version of "what do I want next."
A clean exit
We buy the business outright. You stay through a handover of a few months, then step away. Best for retirement.
Sell most, keep a stake
We buy a controlling interest. You keep 20 to 40 percent and a seat at the table: liquidity now, and a share of what Garde's back office adds.
Part of the price over time
You carry a note for a portion of the price, often with an earn-out tied to sales. It bridges a gap on price and keeps you invested in the transition.
Garde runs the back office, then buys
A management agreement puts Garde's team in the books for a fee, with an agreed option and price to buy later. Useful when neither side is sure yet.
How a sale moves. Your books on Garde are the diligence.
Diligence on an independent restaurant usually means a stack of bank statements and a leap of faith. Ours means putting your books on Garde and reading them together.
- Thirty minutes
Intro call
What you want, your timeline, and the headline numbers: sales, rent, headcount, lease term left. We tell you on the call whether it is likely a fit.
- Two to four weeks
Books review
We connect your point of sale, invoices, payroll and bank to Garde and build a live P&L. You keep the books afterward whether or not we proceed.
- One page
Offer
Price, structure, your role afterward, and what happens to the team, in plain language. You take it to your attorney and your accountant.
- Thirty to sixty days
Close
Purchase agreement, lease assignment, licenses and permits. Your attorney and ours. We have done the paperwork before and keep it moving.
- As agreed
Transition
The team keeps their jobs. Garde's back office is live on day one. You stay as long as the deal says, and the name stays on the awning.
Who we buy from
- Owners ready to retire who want the restaurant and its staff to continue.
- Partners going separate ways who need one of them bought out cleanly.
- Operators who want capital and a back office more than sole ownership.
- Families where the next generation has chosen something else.
- Managers who should own the restaurant they run. See acquisition financing.
Brokers and advisors
Bring us the deals that are too small for everyone else
If you represent an owner with a single restaurant or a small group in New York, we are a real buyer with a short process and no financing contingency on the back-office side, because we are the back office. A one-page summary to contact@garde.app is enough to start.
Plain answers
Before you call
- What happens to my team?
- They keep their jobs. We buy restaurants that work, and the people are why they work. We write it into the agreement.
- Do I have to stay after the sale?
- Only as long as the deal says, and that is negotiated with you. A full exit usually means a handover of a few months. A partnership means as long as you want.
- How do you decide what the restaurant is worth?
- From the ledger we build together during the books review: trailing sales, prime cost, rent, the lease, and what Garde's back office can realistically add. We show you the math.
- Can I keep a stake?
- Yes. Majority with rollover keeps you at 20 to 40 percent with a seat at the table.
- Will you change the name or the menu?
- No. If we wanted a different restaurant we would buy a different restaurant.
- Is this confidential?
- Yes. Nobody on your team or in your neighborhood hears about a conversation with us unless you decide they should.