Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Sandy Springs Spurns Yoreka in The Prado

A member of both Q3 and Q4's DeathWatch, Yoreka at the Prado in Sandy Springs has now ceased operations. While its name is among the more fun with regards to local Fro-Yo shops, its selection, service and product did not stack up. A bit of a Fro-Yo devotee myself, I've tried just about every joint in town and Yoreka was not only not amazing, it was not even good. Its yogurt was quite honestly the worst I have had among the new crop of Fro-Yo joints. The restaurant is located near EVOS, a restaurant whose midtown location was on the Q3 &4 DeathWatch and closed the day DW4 went live. Given recent events, it would not surprise me if the EVOS at the Prado closed as well, and Genki too. Last year, Larry's Giant Subs next door to EVOS closed and seemed to set the trend for future problems among many of the restaurants. The one bright spot is Fuego Mundo, a South American eatery that has performed moderately well despite its poor location with zero street (Roswell Rd) visibility.

The location at Sember's Prado development was to be the first of a number of locations to open, but I doubt any more will get off the ground anytime soon. Another planned location was to be in Sembler's TOWN Brookhaven project and remains listed as "Coming Soon" per a Sembler rep though no signage is up at the property itself and no mention is made on the Yoreka website. Over the summer the chain opened a location in Little 5 Points, which judging from the Yelp reviews, seems to have been about as well received as the Prado location, which is to say not well. At the L5P location, the chain did adapt to market demands and change their pricing model from a "pay by size" model à la Pinkberry, as they offered at the Prado, to the now more popular "pay by ounce" model à la Yogli Mogli, but, alas, they failed to improve the product itself. This oversight I feel will lead to the failure of this location as well.

One Yelp Elite member, Kathleen M., reviewed both locations... giving the Prado location three strikes and noting on her subsequent visit to the L5P location "The yogurt was just as wrong-tasting as the green tea flavor I had tried at the Prado."

It will be interesting to see if all the Fro-Yo shops that have popped up are still open next Spring. ToNeTo Atlanta

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

will this effect the Yoreka! opening (any day now!) at Brookhaven Town Center?!

Atlantan99 said...

Hello Anon,

As they are both Sembler developments, I doubt it will help. My guess is they vacated their Prado space prior to their lease being up. Neither project has met expectations thus far and I would not be at all surprised to see them never open at TOWN Brookhaven.

Thanks for the question and for reading the blog.

FourthEstate said...

Hopefully the remaining retailers and restaurants at the Prado can hold out for at least another year. Life Time Fitness will open a 3-story, 140,000+ square foot Life Time Athletic location on the pad site originally set aside for a Home Depot. The City of Sandy Springs approved plans back in October, and construction is scheduled to begin in early 2011. The opening will take place sometime in Q1 2012. The additional foot and motor traffic to the Prado is bound to help existing tenants, and maybe even attract new ones to fill the voids left by Yoreka and others.

Anonymous said...

In addition to Fuego Mundo, Taco Mac is also killin' at The Prado. The closings of Charlie Mopps down the street, the old Three Dollar Cafe across from Cocktail Cove (closed several years ago) and of course Frankie's (during the Prado redevelopment) left a soprts bar void in the area and Taco Mac picked up all of that business. All of the other places in the Prado are DEAD... although 5 Seasons has some busy nights.

Anonymous said...

It's unfortunate that many of the businesses and restaurants in the Prado have tried and failed. As others have said, let's hope that Fuego Mundo and Taco Mac can hold up the center. Frankly, this economy doesn't seem to be helping.

I used to work near the Prado, so I used to be a regular at many of those restaurants, including Yoreka. I must be honest and say that I am, in fact, a fro-yo junkie and I thought Yoreka was one of the best in Atlanta. Despite what this article says, I thought the FroYo there was like heaven-on-earth (blueberry... yum!) compared to its neighbors Yogli Mogli and Menchies (gross!). I am very sad to have seen it go, but I guess I'll have to settle for all that artificial crap that's left out there.

Best of luck to Evos, Fuego, and Genki. I'll cross my fingers for you three.

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