Friday, November 9, 2018

Bits & Bites

Gyu-Kaku, the popular Japanese BBQ chain, will open their first Atlanta area restaurant later today at Atlantic Station in Midown.   The restaurant, which replaced a large portion of the former Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro, will soft open tonight for dinner only starting at 6PM with the last seating at 8:15PM.  The corporately owned restaurant plans to add both lunch service and longer hours after the new year. 
Pho 24 opened this past weekend in the former Rize Pizza in Square One apartments at the corner of Hammond Drive and Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.  The Vietnamese eatery offers Pho, Bánh mì sandwiches and bubble tea, among other offerings.  Another Pho 24 is slated to open before the end of the year in the former Boneheads at Atlantic Station.  When ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported the planned opening at Atlantic Station this past April, the restaurant was targeting a Labor Day opening.  

Justin Anthony's new Biltong Bar opened Thursday night in Buckhead.  The new restaurant opened in the onetime home of American Food & Beverage at The Shops Buckhead Atlanta.  The restaurant is located at the corner of Buckhead Avenue and North Fulton Drive and is over 6,200 square feet.  The Buckhead outpost is the grown-up version of the original Biltong Bar in the food hall at Ponce City Market in Midtown.  

Co-working space Industrious will next year open a second Buckhead outpost, this time within Monarch Tower across from Phipps Plaza.  The business will occupy 18,775 square feet on the 22nd floor of the established Buckhead high-rise.  Building permits filed earlier this week indicate that the company plans to spend an estimated $1.9 million on the build-out with sources close to the project telling ToNeTo Atlanta that the business is being opened in partnership with Monarch Tower owner Highwoods Properties.  Atlanta was the second expansion market for the Chicago born, now New York-based provider of "premium" co-working space.  The company today operates four locations in metro Atlanta - Buckhead, Midtown, West Midtown and Ponce City Market - with a fifth, at 7000 Central Park in Sandy Springs, in the pipeline.  

A franchise of New York's Mamoun's Falafel plans to open a new restaurant next year in West Midtown Center, the new project behind IKEA, which is already home to Blaze Pizza, Chipotle, Zaxby's and McAlister's Deli, among others.  The new restaurant, slated to open next summer, will occupy a 1,500 square foot space alongside Northside Drive previously leased to Thai Express.  The local franchisees of Thai Express were evicted from the project before ever opening.  Local Mamoun franchisees Kalki Patel and Parimal Patel reportedly signed a six-unit franchise deal to expand the brand in metro Atlanta and Athens in the coming years.   Mamoun's Falafel started serving authentic Middle Eastern cuisine in 1971 in the heart of Greenwich Village. Its menu features meany traditional Mediterranean favorites including falafel, shawarma, hummus, baba ganouj and baklava.   The chain currently has ten restaurants, all of which are located in the northeast except for one in Dallas, Texas.  Mamoun's will enter a fairly competitive market for Mediterranean food with local options Poppin Pita Grill and Tannour Grill both open less than a mile away on 14th Street.  Fellow New York falafel franchise The Halal Guys is also expanding in metro Atlanta with two locations open in Midtown and Chamblee, and more in the works.  

This past February, ToNeTo Atlanta reported that an affiliate of Canadian real estate firm Great Gulf had acquired about an acre of Andrews Square in Buckhead for $11 million.  At the time, all that was known was that the company planned to develop some sort of residential project on the site of the empty two-story structure and surface parking lot along Cains Hill Place.  New images on the Andrews Square website suggest that the development will include 175 luxury apartments as well as ground floor retail, to be managed by Edens, owner of Andrews Square.  The development site, once home to Souper Jenny, among other tenants, is referred to as "Andrews Square Phase II" on the Edens website.  Construction on the project is expected to begin sometime late in the first half of 2019.  


TonyMoly, a popular South Korean cosmetics line, will open one of their only U.S. stores at the new Peachtree Corners Town Center.  The small space will provide the brand with exposure to an American market that may be only slightly familiar with it, and only though wholesale channels such as Ulta.  TonyMoly, which translates to "putting style into packaging" is known for their colorful packaging and is endorsed by a number of popular K-pop bands such as Monsta X.  

A representative from Gino's East emailed ToNeTo Atlanta earlier this week announcing December 7 as the  "projected grand opening date" for the company's first Atlanta area restaurant.  The Chicago style pizzeria will open at 675 North Highland Avenue in the bottom of the apartments by the same name.  The restaurant replaces the shortlived Rize Pizza.     

Eater National published a rather interesting article this week on the rash of closures and bankruptcies in the poke restaurant world.  With countless options locally, including many franchised locations from California chain Poke Bar, is Atlanta next to see a rash of poke eatery closures?  

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Atlantic station....who the heck would put anything in there, much less patronize, in that “teens” infested retail slum? Of course Atlanta....face the facts.

Anonymous said...

cool ur grits man

Anonymous said...

cool ur grits man i like asian food

Anonymous said...

cool ur grits man

Anonymous said...

cool ur grits

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