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Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Following UGA's Loss, Dantanna's Closes in Sandy Springs

Dantanna's has closed its Sandy Springs location after just less than four years in business.  The restaurant, located in a 5,900 square foot out-parcel of Abernathy Square shopping center at the corner of Abernathy & Roswell Roads in Sandy Springs, closed after UGA's devastating loss yesterday, Monday, January 8.  The restaurant opened in April 2014, replacing what had for many years been an Applebee's restaurant before it closed in late 2013.  
Dantanna's is the second location in just the past ten days to close in Abernathy Square, following the closure of Mexican eatery CT Cocina & Taqueria last week.  CT opened in late 2016 in the 2,500 square foot space previously home to a failed Dickey's Barbecue Pit franchise.  

Dantanna's never seemed to resonate with the local community, largely comprised of young and affluent families.  The restaurant originally opened as Dantanna's Tavern before undergoing a significant renovation and re-branding effort in late 2016, and becoming more like its Buckhead and downtown outposts and shortening its name to simply Dantanna's. 

The original Dantanna's in Buckhead at The Shops Around Lenox remains open, as does its second location at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta.  The Buckhead and Downtown outposts, like the Sandy Springs location, replaced formerly popular restaurants.  The Buckhead outpost opened in place of Bennigan's in 2003, while the downtown location opened in place of Jocks & Jills in 2009.  

Are you surprised by the recent closures of both CT Cocina & Taqueria and Dantanna's?  What would you like to see open in place of either restaurant?  Do you think metro Atlanta simply has too many restaurants?

Please share your thoughts below. 

18 comments:

  1. The Hudson Grille down the street is much better.

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  2. Is there a link between UGA football's devastating loss and Dantana's closing, please explain?

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    1. Right!?! What's the connection?

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  3. Good riddance. Had one of the worst meals of my life there. Staff seemed poorly trained, indifferent. As is the owners just expected money to roll in the door based on the name and the copious marketing on local sports talk radio.

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  4. Wow! I know the Dawgs loss was upsetting, but to hear that it was the cause of an entire restaurant going out od business is just heartbreaking. Those poor employees who won’t have a job now just because some football players couldn’t play well enough. Tragic.

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  5. I'd been to the one near Phillips and it was ok but I think it was because we were there for some shows and so we weren't concerned about anything other than eating and crossing the street. I went to the Sandy Springs one once and was blown away by the cost. I want to say it was $21 for crappy smart-phone reading/watching service, hamburger, fries and a drink. It was went they first opened this location and you'd think they'd try to do a lot to IMPRESS the market. Hard to compete vs Hardees (a different level but still) or other restaurants even in that same shopping center, or as you drive down Roswell Road, since nothing is up besides maybe Hammocks until you get to Dalrymple.

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  6. I doubt Dantanna's closing is a very big loss to Sandy Springs, as most of us never seemed to be warmly welcomed by their customer service there to begin with. I will however, miss the Cocina and Taqueria.

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  7. Been there three times in the past 4 years. Service was always subpar and gave it another shot about 3 months ago. Was seated and waited for 10 minutes and no server to be seen. The tables around us said they had no idea where the servers were and it was very slow. We got up and walked out and as we were leaving 2 other tables from others parts of the restaurant were leaving as well. Management didn’t care at all.

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  8. Just admit it...restaurant staffing issues in a devolving cooridor....

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  9. nah - blame it on UGA - makes more sense somehow :-p

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  10. Clickbait brings in the comments ... and the ads

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  11. I had the same experience everyone else did here - 3 star prices for 1 star food and service. I've never been to the Hudson Grill "down the street" but the Hudson Grill I tried a couple times in Brookhaven was so terrible that I'm still not ready to give that chain another try.

    I think the point being made by mentioning closing after the UGA loss is that the owners knew they were closing but decided to hang around until they could milk the public for one last huge night of sales with crappy service and sub-par food.

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  12. Previous generations, college students HAD to work to pay for school and survive. Bars and restaurants were great sources of good money and flexible schedules. Competition for the jobs jobs kept the performance expectations relatively high. These days however, many students have HOPE scholarships and /or student loan money to cover matriculation, books, apartments, a car, clothes, cell phone and entertainment. They are too busy to work hard for wait staff level earnings, and frankly - they don't seem to have "service attitudes". No competition, as almost every place is chronically short staffed. They seem to expect a nice tip regardless of the quality of their performance. They'll rack up $100-300K in student loans. When they realize it will take the rest of their life to repay the loans, they will vote for whatever candidate promises to forgive the debt.

    Meanwhile, service is pretty sucky at about half the restaurants. We are not too many years away from interactive self order with just food runners for wait staff.

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  13. @Anon 11:07 - pretty valid point. Although there are still restaurants where you can get great service nearly every visit. And it doesn't have to be a fine dining place either. I almost always get great service at Waffle House and the servers there seem to stick around for a long time.

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  14. It's not the kids, it is the management and staff. Otherwise every single place I go to OTP would have the same crappy service as this joint. That just isn't the case. No, this was a biz model -- skimp everywhere, including on training, product, staffing, max on marketing, push margins up, figure another sucker will always walk thru the door. I was really struck when I went to Loyal Q in the heart of hyper competitive East Cobb, that they were copiously staffed and the servers seemed to have been very well drilled. That is the only way you are gonna make money going forward with table service.

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  15. Former Applebee's locations seem to be cursed. Where I live here on the Southside, Applebee's relocated about a decade or so ago and the former location has been at least 3 different restaurants, all have failed. There's a former Applebee's between Roswell in Alpharetta that has had several failed restaurants come and go and the current restaurant seems to be having success there.

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  16. It was overpriced and not great! Six feet under would be great there!

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