Washington, D.C.-based Compass Coffee filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, seeking to restructure debts, pare back leases and stabilize operations while keeping cafes open.
The Chapter 11 petition comes as Compass is engaged in numerous legal disputes, including with a landlord and a co-founder.
In an announcement on its website, Compass said its cafes will remain open through the Chapter 11 process while the company refocuses on core locations and closes its Ivy City roastery, relocating roasting to its original Shaw location.
The company pointed to post-pandemic shifts in consumer behavior as a reason for its financial struggles.
“Foot traffic downtown has not returned, work patterns are different, and the economics of running urban cafes look very different than they did even a few years ago,” Compass Coffee Co-Founder and CEO Michael Haft wrote on LinkedIn yesterday. “Like many local restaurants and cafes, we reached a moment where we had to confront that reality honestly.”
Since its founding in 2014, the company has expanded to more than two dozen locations throughout the DMV area. The company said it had 25 cafes.
Court papers included with the bankruptcy filing show Compass’s board authorized management to pursue a transaction that could include “a sale of all or substantially all of the Company’s assets” or an alternative restructuring transaction.
A list of Compass’s largest unsecured claims includes an Ivy City landlord seeking approximately $1.3 million in unpaid rent. Other significant creditors include multiple green coffee sellers owed a combined amount of more than $700,000. The petition lists more than 100 unsecured creditors, estimated assets between $1 million and $10 million and estimated liabilities between $10 million and $50 million.
The Chapter 11 filing lands amid a dispute between Compass’s founders. In January 2025, co-founder Harrison Suarez sued Compass, Michael Haft and another owner in federal court, alleging fraud and other claims. In a memorandum opinion dated Nov. 3, 2025, the court allowed all but one of Suarez’s claims to proceed past a motion to dismiss, while denying a separate motion for partial summary judgment.
In an announcement yesterday that praised Compass employees for their resiliency and thanked patrons for their long-running support, Haft described the company’s latest restructuring as a “difficult chapter.”
“The decisions we’re making reflect the reality of this moment in Washington,” he said. “They allow us to keep serving the city with the same real good coffee and sense of community that have defined Compass from the beginning.”
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