Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Copper Coin Coffee Closed in TOWN Brookhaven

Image posted to the official Copper Coin Facebook page 
Coffee shop abruptly shuttered today.

Copper Coin, the beer, wine, coffee and more cafe that opened in TOWN Brookhaven in late 2015, confirmed today it has closed. The cafe posted the following statement to their official Facebook page earlier this afternoon:  

"It's a sad moment for us to announce that we will no longer be open. It's been a fun run and we thank you all for your loyalty and business. We hope everyone will come visit us at our Woodstock location the next time you are in the area."

Copper Coin replaced Baci by Cafe at Pharr which was the latest iteration of a concept that was among the first wave of restaurants to open in the development in 2012.  

The opening of Copper Coin at TOWN Brookhaven marked the return of a coffee shop to the center following the 2013 closure of The Cup, a cupcake and coffee shop.  (Publix operates a Starbucks-esque coffee shop within its TOWN Brookhaven store.)

The phone at the Woodstock Copper Coin is disconnected, so I was unable to obtain any comment on why the shop closed so abruptly.  Many TOWN Brookhaven residents were left scratching their heads with some indicating that even the landlord was unaware of the closure. 

One clue is a GoFundMe campaign page that I first mentioned in 2015 which was created in 2014 by Copper Coin owner Mike Gullicksen.  It is still active, but reflects that only $400 of a targeted $75,000 goal has been raised.  The funds were to be used for "location 2 expansion."  

The following message was posted to the Copper Coin Brookhaven page February 15th: 

"Copper Coin Brookhaven is hiring Baristas. At Copper Coin we're all about community and providing top notch products and service to our guests. If you are a passionate, self-motivated, and team oriented individual seeking the opportunity to be involved with a 6 year old and growing company with opportunity for advancement, high level training with one of the top coffee roasters in the country, and the ability to work with a team that is more like a family, then we may be interested in you!"

If a business was planning to close in third week of March, why promote employment opportunities in mid-February?  

Around the same time as Copper Coin opened in Brookhaven, they "took over operations" of another coffee shop, Cupbearer Coffee & Tea Outfitters in Vickery Village in Cumming.  I have been unable to determine an exact date, but that location also closed, perhaps as recently as this past January, reopening a few weeks ago as Nido Cafe.  

Back in TOWN Brookhaven, the center was finally seeing progress in leasing shuttered and vacant restaurant space.  

Ohio based PizzaFire, a quick-serve build-your-own pizza concept, signed a lease to open in the space previously occupied by another quick-serve pizza restaurant, treza. Treza was the original occupant of the 3,000 square foot space and opened in late 2011, but was closed by early 2014.  

Popular Midtown pub & eatery HOBNOB signed a lease to take over the former SMASH Kitchen & Bar space, while Jefe's Tacos & Tequilas opened last year in the former Noche Tequila & Tapas bar.  

Other recent additions to the center include Tropical Smoothie Cafe and Tin Can Oyster Bar.  The short-lived Bonehead's space remains vacant.  

Are you surprised by the closure of Copper Coin at TOWN Brookhaven?  What would you like to see open in place of Copper Coin in TOWN Brookhaven? Are you pleased with the recent and upcoming restaurant additions at TOWN Brookhaven?

Please share your thoughts below.  

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

He should have stuck to being an arborist. What made him think he could run a business?

Anonymous said...

This is disappointing. We just had brunch there a few weeks ago and were very impressed by the atmosphere and food. I guess people just would rather go to Starbucks.

Anonymous said...

Couple of thoughts here-I was in copper coin for the first time just two days ago, the first thing I wondered why did they doubled their space from what BACI occupied? Second the atmosphere actually was not optimal there is almost every table in both spaces occupied each buy a single person, no one communing together at all. Only about five people had a cup of coffee or some food product, everyone else was using the free Wi-Fi apparently without purchase. I'm not hating here, seriously, at least two tables look occupied by the homeless. Good for the owners of copper coin to give them space. The small carved out area in Publix that serves coffee is nowhere near Starbucks-Esqe. Not even 1% near. And like copper coin the sitting area occupies the free Wi-Fi users and the homeless.

Anonymous said...

Why the heck are the homeless making their way up to Brookhaven?

InAtl said...

I have eaten here several times and always enjoyed it. Liked the coffee, food and atmosphere. Sad to see it go.

Anonymous said...

Never had a bad experience there. Just the place felt a little sterile and cold to me. Didn't have a warm, inviting atmosphere. Coffee was decent.

Anonymous said...

Passed by often and saw lots of people with open lap tops but few dollars being spent. Wonder why the space was expanded... Increase the rent cost with no dollars coming in ? ?

cafeej said...

This is surprising as I rode my bike by it on Sunday and it seemed busy.

My last experience there several months ago was not good - came in the afternoon and requested a cup of decaf and they did not sell decaf. A coffee shop without decaf? Not everyone wants to walk around jacked on caffeine all day.

That said, this is unfortunate as they filled a much needed niche in TB - a coffee/wine/beer bar where people can meet, work, read or just chill for a few hours. Hopefully someone else will give it a go with the same concept.

cafeej said...

Regarding the comment about homeless in Brookhaven.....there are lots of homeless in Brookhaven but keep a pretty good job of keeping out of sight.

Anonymous said...

Town Brookhaven - where businesses go to die

Anonymous said...

I think the entire layout of TB has been a fail. I go to the costco over there. The entire Costco area is around 10-15 feet below the other part, in terms of elevation. Most of it is invisible from the street. Something more akin to the Forum might have enabled the smaller places to do more business(?)

Anonymous said...

Copper Coin was decent, but I wish Goldberg's Deli would occupy the space. There are no good bagels in or around Town Brookhaven. Nothing against Flying Biscuit, but there could stand to be another great breakfast/lunch option. Admittedly, not a coffee house person though.

Anonymous said...

A good bagel shop would do well at Brookleigh. When the hungry peach finally closes that would be the perfect space. I'm not hating on Brookhaven provisions it's just that even with new management they are still convoluted And confused. They don't know who they are and what they are

Anonymous said...

Copper Coin was a front!
They provided free wifi with a code to track your internet activity!

Okay, I am just kidding. I am obviously very disappointed that they closed.

Anonymous said...

It's clear why this place didn't last. It's very unprofessional on the owners to rant on Facebook comments being gouged with rent prices and blame the landlord for their abrupt exit from town Brookhaven.
Besides for that though it was extremely poor planning on their part. Fisrt you'd think their core demographic would be the Ogelthorpe students and faculty. But they failed to realize they have a Starbucks on campus. About a mile down the road another Starbucks. A coffee shop also in public.
Second. They expanded. They complained about rent prices but doubled their space. Not only did they double their space but they also started closing in the middle of the day from 3-5 I believe.
Third. They were more of an Internet Cafe then anything else. As I saw someone else mention it was always full of people using the free Internet and maybe getting a cup of coffee.

As someone mentioned in the comments it was a very cold atmosphere. The owners were always sitting at the counter eyeballing their customers. You'd think they would want to engage with them to gather input on how their doing so far or how they liked the place. No they just sat there staring. Had they engaged more with customers looking for feedback I think they would have done much better in here.

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