Tuesday, July 23, 2013

B.Y.O.B., But Bring Your Own Beer

B.Y.O.B. will open in about a week at Colony Square in midtown.

B.Y.O.B. or Build Your Own Burgers, will open in place of a former Gyro Wrap. 

Overall, Colony Square's food court is surprisingly underappreciated and underutilized.  Eateries like Chick-fil-A, Starbucks, and Shout all have access from Peachtree Road, but basically all others, within the center itself, are hidden from the outside, with a number of vacancies. 

In recent months, J.R. Crickets and Tin Drum Asia Cafe both opened in the center though word is that neither is doing especially well.

Just last week Aaron Rocco's, a restaurant serving assorted breakfast and lunch fare, closed while a Blimpie somehow stays afloat.  Houlihan's closed their restaurant at Colony Sqaure over five years ago, and though it offers street frontage and an outdoor patio, it has remanined vacant. 

B.Y.O.B. will offer a fresh made black bean, custom blend ground beef, and fresh ground turkey burger on its regular menu.  A number of house built specialty burgers will also be available.  B.Y.O.B. will also feature normal french fries as well as sweet potato fries and fried fresh onion rings. 

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek at the menu at a recent tasting and personally loved the garbanzo salad, consisting of garbanzo beans, avocado, tomatoes, onions and a few other ingredients.

As some longtime midtown residents will recall, Tom Catherall of Here to Serve tried burgers once already in Colony Square, but did not have much luck.  That's A Burger! opened in place of a failed Corner Bakery at Colony Square in the mid 2000s but has been closed for over five years.  A full service burger restaurant, That's A Burger was ahead of the burger curve in Atlanta and never really took off.  That's A Burger was replaced by Piri Piri, a Here to Serve chicken restaurant, and later Tamarind Seed, a Thai restaurant that remains open today. 

Colony Square in some ways is similar to Peachtree Center downtown, yet their traffic and popularity among would be guests is vastly different. 

With so many offices both above and around Colony Square, not to mention the W Midtown attached, what could B.Y.O.B. do to capture what seems to be captive audience?  What B.Y.O.B.menu item sounds the most interesting?  What is your favorite casual midtown eatery?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

is the sushi restaurant still in colony square?.... I used to go there a good bit for happy hour when I lived in Atlanta/midtown.....

Unknown said...

Yes Shout is still there, with there $10 all you can eat sushi during lunch.

Anonymous said...

Horrible! burnt bread, cold slaw tastes terrible. stuff put on burger not ordered.

Anonymous said...

As someone who lives nearby, I can tell you a major problem is all those eateries mistakenly think they should only be open during " work" hours. Virtually all are open only till 3 or 4 pm and most are closed completely on weekends. There are literally tens of thousands of people living within blocks, staying at the many hotels nd hanging at Piedmont Park and the High -- all of whom are looking for fast good things to eat. If you don't believe it, go a couple blocks west to the Einstin Bagels and Highland Bakery that have lines out the door all weekend or a few blocks South to where ll the places have opened to big business these last few years . I work out of the area bu live near Colony Square and would love to elk over there on weekends to eat. But alas, they're mired in the past.

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