Keke’s Breakfast Café
Bottom line
- Total investment $623K – $1.9M including a $30K franchise fee, 5.5% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $2.1M/year. Estimated payback in 2.1 years.
- Rated STRONG with a risk score of 42/100. SBA loan default rate of 0.0% across 10 loans (below the industry average).
- System growing at 22.2% CAGR over 3 years with 69 total units — strong expansion trajectory.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one Keke’s Breakfast Café unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
25%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Keke’s Breakfast Café units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
31.2%
3.88× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
2.59×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$7.4M
on $17.8M purchase
Total debt
$10.3M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Franchisees operate quick-service breakfast and brunch cafés serving made-to-order eggs, pancakes, omelets, and sandwiches with table service or counter ordering. Daily operations include food prep, staff management, inventory control, customer service, and adherence to brand standards across a protected territory.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 4 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Keke's Breakfast Café presents moderate-to-cautious risk due to unresolved litigation involving parent entities, lack of financial performance data, small system size, and ambiguous going concern status despite reasonable unit growth and profitability metrics.
Score breakdown · what drove the 42 / 100 rating
- 01HIGHThree pending/settled litigation cases involving parent company affiliates (DFO, LLC and Denny's, Inc.) suggest structural or operational disputes within the franchise system
- 02MINORHigh initial investment range ($622K–$1.9M) with no Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) provided, making ROI projections unverifiable
- 03MEDModest unit growth of 12.2% YoY on only 69 total units indicates a small, still-scaling system with limited brand recognition and survival track record
- 04HIGHPending litigation as of 2023 (RWDT FOODS case) remains unresolved, creating uncertainty around franchisor stability and potential financial liability to franchisees
- 05HIGHGoing Concern flagged as 'False' — if this refers to the franchisor, it raises questions about financial viability and ability to support franchisees long-term
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
18 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Keke’s Breakfast Café · FDD (2025) PDF