Small Town Play Café
Bottom line
- Total investment $501K – $792K including a $45K franchise fee, 6.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $1.0M/year (median $88K). Estimated payback in 2.2 years.
- Rated CAUTION with a risk score of 70/100.
- Emerging franchise — only 1 year of franchising with 1 units. Early-stage systems carry higher risk but may offer better territory availability.
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 Small Town Play Café unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
23%
Below typical band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 Small Town Play Café units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
49.9%
7.57× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
1.88×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$1.9M
on $9.3M purchase
Total debt
$7.5M
SBA $4.7M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Small Town Play Café operates an indoor play facility and café hybrid targeting families with young children. Franchisees manage day-to-day operations including supervised play areas, food service, birthday party hosting, and membership programs while maintaining safety/sanitation standards.
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 12 · 1 state reported
The Territory Map
FDD Item 12 reports the state count, but the specific list isn't in our current data. The map will appear once we re-extract from the FDD or enough franchisee contacts are available.
1
states with franchisees (per FDD Item 12)
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Extremely early-stage franchise with single operating unit, unclear parent company viability, and insufficient operational data to validate $500K+ investment thesis.
Score breakdown · what drove the 70 / 100 rating
- 01MEDOnly 1 operating unit with unknown growth trajectory indicates unproven scalability and extremely limited performance data
- 02HIGHGoing Concern status is FALSE, suggesting the parent company or existing operations may face viability issues
- 03MINORHigh investment range ($500K–$792K) with only one comparable unit creates severe benchmarking uncertainty
- 04HIGHNo litigation disclosed but single-unit system provides minimal legal/operational precedent to evaluate
- 05MINORItem 19 (financial performance) appears absent or unreliable given contradictory metrics (avg revenue $1.04M vs. single unit unknown)
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
1 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
Small Town Play Café · FDD (2025) PDF