Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Atlanta Location of Viking Cooking School Gets "Chopped"

The Viking Cooking School will be closing its Atlanta location.

The Viking Store & Cooking School, located at 1745 Peachtree Street in the Brookwood Place shopping center, will close April 25th. The 6,000 square foot store and school opened in the south Buckhead center in 2003.

The flagship Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi will reportedly remain open.

Shirley A. Gouffon, Senior Vice President for Selig Enterprises and the one who leased Brookwood Place, was quoted to have said that the Viking lease was her "favorite tenant score for Brookwood Place."

Middleby Corp acquired Viking Range Corp., the store's parent company, for $380 million early last year. Based in Greenwood, Mississippi, Viking was started in the early 1980s.   Middleby, based in Elgin, Illinois, makes commercial cooking equipment and said (when the purchase was announced) that it would incorporate its speed-cooking, induction and other technologies into Viking equipment.

Brookwood Place has seen plenty of changes since its opening including anchors Borders and Kroger both closing. Borders Books & Music closed its two-level store at the center in 2011.  The space was later filled by the Aveda Institute, which relocated from Piedmont Road in Buckhead. Later in 2011, the two-level Kroger closed and was subsequently replaced by a relocated Sam Flax art supply store.  

Gift and stationery boutique Swoozie's filed bankruptcy in 2010 and closed all of their 40+ locations nationwide including one at Brookwood Place next to the Viking Store & School.  Swoozie's was purchased and emerged from bankruptcy and reopened a few of their former stores, the Brookwood Place store not among them.  This past October, their former space at Brookwood Place was reopened as a Viking Distribution East showroom.  The Atlanta-based company is headquartered in Suwanee where their main showroom is located.  The showroom is not related to the store and school and will remain open.  

Wolfgang Puck Express closed in 2009 and became firat Baroni, then Fig Jam Kitchen & Bar and is now Chipotle Mexican Grill.  A portion of the former restaurant space was split off and allowed for Barre3 to open.  Taurus, another restaurant, closed in late 2008, and became Tuk Tuk Thai Food Loft.  Sage clothing boutique closed its location at the center in 2011, and has since been replaced by Sunny's Hair & Wigs.

For those Atlantans seeking cooking classes and seminars, there are plenty of other options.  

The Cook's Warehouse, with locations in Decatur, Midtown, East Cobb and Brookhaven, offers classes, seminars and cooking demonstrations, as well as being available for private events.  

The Buford Highway Farmers Market on Buford Highway in Doraville offers cooking classes on select days and is a little bit of a hidden gem.  

Asha Gomez of Cardamom Hill opened The Third Space in Studioplex near Serpas True Food in Old Fourth Ward last spring.  The space offers chef demonstrations, cooking classes, recipe testing and private dinners among its offerings.  

Retailer Sur La Table offers cooking classes at select locations.  In Atlanta, Sur La Table at Phipps Plaza offers classes as will the chain's upcoming location at North Point Mall in Alpharetta.  (Sur La Table at North Point will be on the mall's first floor and is currently scheduled to open in mid May. )

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This center's lack of success really indicates the fickle, non-loyal nature of the Atlanta consumer. Atlantans simply do not support local businesses.

Anonymous said...

The center's lack of success indicates a location that is plagued by traffic and lack of multiple routes to the center.

Anonymous said...

I believe you can also take a Viking Cooking Class at Chateau Elan. It was available in December, and a good bit of fun.

Anonymous said...

Didn't Viking just expand into the Swoozie's space? Is the hole store leaving or just the cooking school?

Atlantan99 said...

@Anon RE: expansion into Swoozie's space,

As I mention in the post : The former Swoozie's reopened as Viking Distribution East showroom. The Atlanta-based company is headquartered in Suwanee where their main showroom is located. The showroom is not related to the store and school and will remain open.

Thanks for your comment and readership.

Jenna S. said...

Craaap...we've been holding onto a gift certificate for a cooking class there for about a year =( Thanks for the info. Good info on all of the other places to take cooking classes in the ATL, btw.

Anonymous said...

So sad to see the Viking Cooking School close. There is nothing in Atlanta that will ever compare!!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...