Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Bits & Bites

Metro Atlanta's newest Zoës Kitchen will debut on Thursday January 19th in Kennesaw.  The new restaurant will open at the corner of Barrett Parkway and Cobb Parkway in the soon to be Whole Foods Market-anchored Kennesaw Marketplace shopping center.  

A new location of Charlotte, N.C based Bojangles' is planned for Fayetteville.  The new freestanding restaurant will open in the 800 block of South Glynn Street.  The new restaurant will be corporately owned and will feature the brand's new "Biscuit Theater" where patrons can watch as fresh biscuits are made.  The restaurant will likely open by the end of the year, but as work has not started, it's difficult to speculate.  


LaVergne, Tennessee based Bargain Hunt, a "unique discount retail chain," plans to open its next Georgia location in Griffin.  The new 25,833 square foot store will open in Spalding Village shopping center between Fred's and Ross. All three stores, plus an additional vacant space, occupy a former Big K Mart which closed in 2003.  Griffin will be the chain's 11th store in Georgia.  Existing stores are located in Douglasville, Dalton, Austell, and Rome, among other cities. Thus far the chain has not penetrated ITP.   


Walmart recently announced plans to close a number of its "Walmart Neighborhood Market" stores including a local store in Marietta.  The approximately 41,000 square foot store opened in January 2013 and is slated to close March 3rd.  The store is located in Bellemeade shopping center on Powder Springs Street and replaced what had previously been a Food Depot grocery store.  Walmart continues to operate a number of Neighborhood Market stores in metro Atlanta including another store in East Cobb at the corner of Old Canton and Roswell Roads.  

Another Broken Egg Cafe, a Destin, Florida based chain of breakfast and lunch eateries, plans to open its sixth Atlanta area location Tuesday Monday, January 16th in Roswell.  As I first reported last month, the 3,600 square foot restaurant will open in Roswell Market Place, at the corner of Mansell Road and Alpharetta Highway.  Green Olive Media, the public relations firm which represents the restaurant locally, distributed an email earlier this week announcing two special preview events in advance of the grand opening.   The restaurant will hold preview events to support two local partners, the Roswell Fire & Police Foundation on Friday January 13th, and The Drake House (a local organization that provides short-term crisis housing, education and empowerment programs for homeless, single mothers and their children) on the 14th. Friday's preview will take place from 10AM until 1PM, Saturday's preview will run 9AM until 1PM.   Diners can pay as much or as little as they wish for their meal, with 100% of the proceeds going to the respective charity. Those wishing to attend the pre-opening events must visit http://www.grandopening.newatabe.com or call (678)878-2210 for reservations, as seating is limited. 

Willy's Mexicana Grill plans to open its newest Atlanta area location in Cartersville on Monday, January 30th. The new restaurant will be the Atlanta-based chain's 31st store. Other new Willy's locations are coming soon to Smyrna and Northlake.  

Score one for David! Dunkin' Donuts, the Goliath national doughnut chain, has closed its location on Cobb Parkway North.  The freestanding doughnut shop, owned by Ioan Donuts Holdings, LLC, opened in late 2015 and was closed by late 2016.  Ioan owns over 30 Dunkin' Donuts but seems to have been unable to compete with the local Tip Top Donuts, located literally next door.   More on this local success story can be found in this article from The Marietta Daily Journal.

Garden Fresh Restaurant Corporation, the San Diego-based operator of the Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurant chains, has been purchased out of bankruptcy by Cerberus Capital Management LP.   The restaurant group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past October.  Although Cortland Capital Market Services, LLC, already one of the company's lenders, previously planned to purchase the company, Cerberus, also one of the company's lenders, eventually purchased the business when Cortland and another unidentified suitor dropped out. As of the bankruptcy filing, the company operated 124 restaurants.     Garden Fresh previously announced plans to close 20 to 30 underperforming locations.   In metro Atlanta, the company operates four units under the Sweet Tomatoes brand in Kennesaw, Gwinnett, Alpharetta & Sandy Springs.  

American Apparel, the once hugely popular apparel retailer, has been purchased out of bankruptcy by Canadian apparel firm, Gildan Activewear.  American Apparel filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy this past November and reportedly had drawn the interest of both Forever 21 and Amazon, among other companies.  American Apparel already closed its Shops Around Lenox location in Buckhead.  Its other retail locations in Atlanta and elsewhere are not part of Gildan's purchase and are likely to close. (The American Apparel in Atlantic Station is closed now due to a flood from an upper unit but is expected to reopen.. if only briefly.) 

3 comments:

drummerpop said...

Any word on what the Peach Pit will offer? They will occupy the former Blockbuster in Mesh corner @ Peachtree - Dunwoody and Johnson Ferry. Thanks and keep up the good work. I appreciate your blog and the information it provides.

Fatjimi said...

Zoning plans released for a new RaceTrac at the corner of Old Canton and Roswell across the street from the QT redesign-opening late Jan or early Feb. This is supposed to replace the California Car Wash.

Anonymous said...

It's supposed to be a cheerleading and gymnastics studio.

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