Ark Restaurants Q1 2026 Earnings Report

Ark Restaurants EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.25
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Ark Restaurants Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $40.75 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Ark Restaurants Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2026
• Date: 2/9/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Ark Restaurants (NASDAQ:ARKR), traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ARKR, is a Boca Raton, Florida–based restaurant operator. The company owns and manages a portfolio of casual and upscale dining venues that feature Cuban-inspired menus, full-service bars and live entertainment. Its concepts emphasize traditional Latin flavors paired with modern culinary techniques to appeal to a broad range of diners.

Ark Restaurants serves both on-premise and off-premise customers, offering dine-in seating, take-out, delivery and catering services. Many locations also host private events, weddings and corporate gatherings, leveraging dedicated event spaces and custom menu offerings to support special occasions. The company’s bars highlight craft cocktails, premium spirits and curated wine lists designed to complement its food programs.

Founded in the late 1970s, Ark Restaurants has expanded alongside Florida’s hospitality industry, building a regional footprint primarily across South Florida. In 2017, the company completed a public listing through a reverse merger, positioning itself for further growth and selective franchising opportunities. Today, Ark Restaurants continues to explore new markets and partnerships to extend its Cuban-themed concepts beyond its core territory.

Ark Restaurants Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: Adjusted EBITDA was about $150,000 higher year‑over‑year; the company reports roughly $9M of cash and $3M of debt with no other major balance-sheet changes.
• Neutral Sentiment: Cash declined recently due to lease-required build-out at New York‑New York (the Americana redo opens in April) and litigation costs at Bryant Park, but management expects cash to improve after the build‑out and notes March is the typical annual low point.
• Positive Sentiment: Las Vegas operations are strong despite the Strip being down ~11%, with improved efficiencies and potential expansion opportunities noted by management.
• Negative Sentiment: Full‑service restaurants in Florida are down ~10–13% (management cites severe cold weather and traffic loss), squeezing margins, and Bryant Park litigation continues to hurt event business despite management saying their legal position has improved.
• Positive Sentiment: Faster‑service units are performing well—Hollywood fast‑food at the Hard Rock is doing extremely well and Sequoia is showing early signs of improvement under new management.

Presentation

[Operator]

Greetings, and welcome to the Ark Restaurants Q1 2026 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operating assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. It is now my pleasure to introduce to you your host, Secretary Christopher Love. Thank you. You may begin.

[Christopher Love, Secretary at Ark Restaurants]

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our conference call for the Q1 ended December twenty-seven, twenty twenty-five. My name is Christopher Love, and I am the Secretary of Ark Restaurants. With me on the call today is Michael Weinstein, our Chairman and CEO, and Anthony Sirica, our President and CFO. For those of you who have not yet obtained a copy of our press release, it was issued on the newswires yesterday and is available on our website. To review the full text of that press release, along with the associated financial tables, please go to our homepage at www.arkrestaurants.com. Before we begin, however, I'd like to read the Safe Harbor statement.

[Christopher Love, Secretary at Ark Restaurants]

I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion this morning will include forward-looking statements and that these statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed on them. We refer everyone to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for more detailed discussion of the risks that may have a direct bearing on our operating results, performance, and financial conditions. I'll now turn the call over to Michael.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Hi. Before I get going, let's have Anthony go over the balance sheet and anything that was significant.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Yep.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

It was really a quiet quarter, so Anthony, go ahead.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Yep. Real quick, as you saw in the release, our Adjusted EBITDA was about $150,000 better this year than it was last year. Our Balance Sheet, the cash was $9 million and change, and our debt is $3 million. Other than that, the Balance Sheet did not have any significant changes. Like Michael said, it was a very quiet quarter compared to the last several quarters with impairments and things like that. So, it's really, you know, pretty consistent, the Balance Sheet. I'll turn it over to Michael.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Yeah, on the operations side, I'll speak to that in a second. Just with regard to the cash balance, as we have indicated, you know, we signed a new lease with MGM for New York-New York a couple of years ago, and part of the requirement of that new lease was doing some work within our restaurants. And the work is mostly done at this point, but the redo of America, it's open, but the new facility that we're building will be open in April. That's taken a lot of cash in the last couple of months. Also, our litigation bills at Bryant Park has taken a lot of cash. So, we expect once the build-out of America is completed, the cash position will start to improve.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

And in the March quarter, that's the low point for us in cash on an annual basis. So, we'll see cash starting to improve in the next couple of months. On the income side, venue by venue, Las Vegas remains a high point for us. We're seeing better results there, despite the Strip being down 11%. Our operations are doing quite well. We're more efficient. Keith Eure, who runs those operations, is doing a spectacular job for us. And we're starting to see, hopefully, some expansion opportunities in Vegas, for what we do. Alabama is fine. The Florida restaurants have continued to be down 10%, 12%, 13% on the revenue side. So margins are squeezed.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Expenses, although we think we're efficient, they're much higher than they were, you know, a couple of years ago. Just inflation. We haven't—we raised some prices along the way, but revenues are soft. That's in our full-service restaurants. Our Hollywood fast food in the Hard Rock continues to do extremely well. Sequoia in Washington, we have new management there. I was down there last week. We're really excited about the opportunity. The new management is supporting us. Washington's been a difficult environment for everybody. The project we're in is not doing well, as a whole, but we're starting to see a little perk up in Sequoia. And New York, Bryant Park, again, we're still in this litigation mode. It has hurt us with events.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

It continues to hurt us with events, but the litigation, we think we're in good shape and, the beneficiary of us being operating the restaurants over the last year and a half, despite the fact that everybody seems to know that there's a litigation going on, more event business is starting to be signed up. So I think this year will be better on the revenue side in the event and corporate and social event side than it has been. So I think we'll pick up a little bit there. Robert continues to do very well. The other things I guess we should discuss is the Meadowlands.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Right now, we are doing, you know, the owners of the Meadowlands Racetrack. We're doing surveying to find out where the public will stand on a referendum to vote for a casino in the northern part of the state, away from Atlantic City. So once that survey is complete, if it's positive, we think that's the ammunition the legislature needs to go forward and put a referendum on the ballot this November. We just started this process about a week ago. It'll take a month, a month and a half to complete, so hopefully we'll see a positive result. So with that, any questions?

[Operator]

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star key. Our first question comes from the line of Roger Lipton with Lipton Financial. Please proceed with your question.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

Yeah. Good morning, Michael and Anthony.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Good morning.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

Looks like because you're operating line by line, costs decreased food and beverage and payroll. Looks like your menu prices were raised noticeably, kind of across the board. You mentioned down in Florida, but you know, it came down quarter-over-quarter from your Q4 to the Q1. Cost of sales was, as you well know, I'm sure, is down 270 basis points, and your payroll is down 349. Several hundred, yeah, over 300 basis points. So that's pretty material. So is that the? It sounds like that was the case, and has it affected traffic, I guess, is the question?

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Too hard to answer the last question, has it affected traffic? There's, you know, there's so much that goes on, weather, you know, and other things. We're just trying to be more efficient. We have not raised prices significantly. I would disagree with that. I think we're just being more efficient. And-

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Yeah, I mean, we've you know, reengineered some menu items. We're trying to be more efficient on payrolls, reduce overtime, things like that.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

Well, that's good to hear.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Sure.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

I mean, it's preferable-

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Yeah.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

-to improve margins without raising prices, obviously, right?

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Right. Yes.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

No, but we have raised them a little bit, you know, and certain menu items, I mean, it's crazy. And, you know, I go back to Rustic and king crab legs. You know, pre-COVID, it was a $99 item. Now it's a $235 item. Why? The cost per pound has gone through the roof. So, you know, but other than a couple of items where, you know, just shortages and the cost of the menu increases have been very modest.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

Well, all right. That's good to hear. So how is, how has the traffic trend been? Has the... We've had very cold weather in the Northeast, but you're obviously, most of your revenues are in Las Vegas. You said Las Vegas has been firm. Well, how's the weather been in Alabama and Florida this Q1?

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Alabama is fine. Florida has been a disaster. It got down to 45 degrees.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Last two weeks, yeah.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

The last two weeks, it's been brutal. Yeah, and not to try to be, you know, funny, but iguanas are falling out of trees, if you read those articles. So that impacts us dramatically. I mean, last week we were down 40% at some of our full-service restaurants in Florida. It has, you know, it's just been a disaster, as well as in New York. I mean, you know, nobody was going out. So, the first two weeks were very, very tough.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

The good news is that the comparisons will be easy next year. It will not be any colder next year than it's been this year.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Hope not.

[Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial]

Okay. Well, thanks very much.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

You're welcome, Roger.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Kaminsky with JJK Consultants. Please proceed with your question.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Research Analyst at JJK Consultants]

Good morning, Anthony. Good morning, Mike.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Hey, Jeff.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Research Analyst at JJK Consultants]

Two questions, different directions, but two questions. Michael, you just said on the call that, with respect to the litigation, at Bryant Park, you feel that you guys are in pretty good shape. I was wondering, I know there's, you know, it's a legal issue, and there's probably things you can and can't say, but, what gives you the belief that you're in good shape? As I pointed out on this call, three months ago, it's my understanding that, when it came to, winning the lease, that, Ark actually came in third, not second. So should you be successful in this litigation, that doesn't necessarily mean that Ark gets the lease back because there was someone who came in second, not you. So that's one question, and I'll pivot and address them both.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Research Analyst at JJK Consultants]

In the press release, you mentioned, as you have spoken in the past, with respect to the Meadowlands, that there's likely to be some dilution in terms of Ark's ownership. I understand that Ark owns about 8%, roughly. You know, you can correct me if that's a wrong number. What do you expect the dilution impact to be on the ownership of the casino in the Meadowlands? Thank you.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

All right. So on the Bryant Park issue, the discovery process has brought to light certain things that we think are beneficial to us. That as well as the time period over which we will remain in possession, we believe, has while the litigation goes forward and any appeals go forward, we think we got a significant amount of time to resolve the issues. So that's, you know, and I encourage everybody to read, you know, the court process. That's, that is public documentation that's available on the c- the city-

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

New York State Supreme Court website.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Yeah. With regard to dilution at the Meadowlands, there are too many moving parts. Where there is no dilution, if a casino is, is a license is granted to the Meadowlands, is our exclusive on all food and beverage. So that is apart from our ownership position in the LLC, which is New Meadowlands Racetrack. So from that point of view, there's no dilution in our exclusive, but there will be dilution based upon what deal, you know, is made with an operator and how much money that has to be raised.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

You know, if speculative, obviously, I don't know what our ability to raise money will be if a casino license is issued in the North, and I guess that would depend greatly on the price of our stock and whether it makes sense to do a secondary to keep the dilution to a minimum, or whether we just decide to be diluted or taking a partner. You know, there are too many issues, so, but I imagine there will be some dilution.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Research Analyst at JJK Consultants]

Okay. Thank you.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

I hope that answers your question.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Research Analyst at JJK Consultants]

Thank you.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

Thank you. And we have reached the end of the question and answer session, and I'd like to turn the floor back over to Michael Weinstein for closing remarks.

[Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO at Ark Restaurants]

All right. Thank you for your participation, and we'll speak to you in three months.

[Anthony Sirica, President and CFO at Ark Restaurants]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Anthony Sirica, President and CFO
• Christopher Love, Secretary
• Michael Weinstein, Chairman and CEO

Analysts

• Jeffrey Kaminsky, Research Analyst at JJK Consultants
• Roger Lipton, Founder and President at Lipton Financial