Former Kibitz Room owner files for bankruptcy as he tries to repay debts from shuttered King of Prussia restaurant

Brandon Parish, former owner of the Kibitz Room in King of Prussia and deli manager at the original Cherry Hill location, has filed for personal bankruptcy, months after his Montgomery County restaurant closed amid mounting debts.

Parish owes creditors nearly $1.8 million, including $1.2 million to Hanover Community Bank for a small business loan, and has about $15,500 in assets, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The 33-year-old King of Prussia resident filed for bankruptcy in early September, five months after he and his father, Neil, were evicted from their storefront in the Valley Forge Center on U.S. Route 202. Their landlord won a judgment for more than $194,000 in rent and fees.

The restaurant was in business for a year.

The restaurant also owed more than $135,000 to distributor Foods Galore, a debt listed in Parish’s personal bankruptcy filing alongside more than $140,000 owed to other business vendors and related services.

The King of Prussia location’s debts are “going to take some work to clean up,” Brandon Parish said in April, noting the expansive full-service restaurant strayed too far from its over-the-counter roots. “Obviously, it’s been a disaster since day one. Nothing went as planned. But we’ll have to figure all that out.”

Meanwhile, the Cherry Hill Kibitz Room — a separate business that had been owned by Brandon Parish’s mother, Sandy — abruptly closed and filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Neil and Brandon Parish, backed by outside investors, negotiated a deal in bankruptcy court to buy the Cherry Hill equipment and sign a new lease there, though neither Parish would be an owner. The Springdale Road deli reopened in May, with the Parish men behind the counter.

» READ MORE: The Kibitz Room deli in Cherry Hill has reopened under familiar hands

Brandon Parish’s personal bankruptcy case will not impact operations at the Cherry Hill deli since he is only an employee, according to a spokesperson.

The Kibitz Room has been part of the Parish family for more than two decades.

In 2003, Neil Parish purchased the Cherry Hill spot from Russ Cowan, who had given the deli its name, a loose translation of the Yiddish “chitchat.” Cowan, a local legend, owned Philly’s Famous 4th Street Deli for 18 years and now owns Radin’s Deli in Cherry Hill.

Brandon grew up at Kibitz, standing on milk crates to wash dishes for his father. Ever since he was a kid, delis were his “comfort zone,” Brandon said in 2025.

After Brandon’s mother and father split about a decade ago, his dad moved back to the Baltimore area, and Brandon continued to run the Cherry Hill restaurant with his mom. But he was itching to open his own place, he said.

In 2025, Brandon left his post in Cherry Hill to open a Kibitz Room in the former Michael’s Deli in King of Prussia. The business was an independent venture with his father, who had returned to the Philly area from Baltimore. The senior Parish was in charge of the menu, but his son was the boss: “This is Brandon’s store,” Neil said at the time.

The pair said they were excited to open a full-service restaurant that was about four times the size of the Cherry Hill deli and could seat 200 people.

They created a giant menu full of staples like corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup, knishes, and chicken pot pies, as well as elevated items like garlicky flank steak. They planned tableside chopped liver service.

“I feel like this really encapsulates the Jewish deli as a whole experience,” Brandon Parish said at the time. “The old, the new, the vibe, the aesthetic, the personality, the quality, the menu mix.”

And he scoffed at occasional reports that Jewish delis were going out of style: “I think if you do it well, then you never have to worry about failure.”