Wild Wing Café — the Charlotte, N.C.-based wings restaurant — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of North Carolina on July 19, Nation’s Restaurant News has learned.
The wings-focused sports bar and restaurant is owned by private equity firm Axum Capital Partners under the limited liability company, Aetius Companies, which has assets of between $10-$50 million and liabilities of between $10-$50 million, according to bankruptcy documents. Axum Capital is owned by former NFL player and Carolina Panthers star, Muhsin Muhammad II.
According to a statement sent to the Charlotte Observer on Thursday, the company has been struggling to recover after the pandemic and they “believe the strongest future for the chain will happen through a court restructuring.”
Wild Wing Café first opened 33 years ago as a sports party that grew into a musically-inclined restaurant. In 2012, the company was purchased by Axum Capital. Restaurants now feature TVs playing the latest sports game and live music during non-game times. As of 2021, the wings-focused restaurant Wild Wing Café was looking to expand to up to 100 restaurants by 2028, but has since been struggling. In 2021, then-CEO Steve Weigel said that the company was not betting on off-premises (even though that is the direction the restaurant industry was going), because they are an in-person experiential concept.
Weigel has since left the company, and Mark Cote — who was named CEO in 2022 — is now named on the bankruptcy documents.
Contact Joanna Fantozzi at [email protected]
