Thursday, February 3, 2011

KO'd at Lindbergh, Urban Flats Reopening?

Urban Flats, a concept from Orlando, Florida that once had 2 area locations, has now found someone to re-open one of the shuttered locations. Currently the chain has seven units in its home state of Florida, and an additional location in Nashville. In 2007, a local franchisee opened the first Urban Flats in the Atlanta market at The Avenue Webb Gin. The same franchisee added a second location at Lindbergh's City Center in late 2008. While both seemed to do well at first, it became apparent that the Lindbergh location was only busyon Wednesdays when it ran its popular "Wine Down Wednesday" promotion. Basically all of the other days of the week, the restaurant was slow, almost as if people only remembered it was there on Wednesdays.

I started to question their longterm potential given their promo problems in February of 2009 and by December, 2009, they were closed. By March 2010, the Lawrenceville location had closed as well. Now, over a year later, another franchisee sees opportunity where this concept previously failed. Plans are in place to re-open the location at Lindbergh City Center in the coming months. I say months, but given that the restaurant is fully furnished, it could feasibly open even sooner.

I got a lot of flack for my DeathWatch this week, and I must again bring it up. I hereby declare this one of the biggest risks of failure in the city. Almost as ill-advised as the guy re-opening EVOS in midtown, in both cases, entrepreneurs are re-opening the exact same businesses that failed! Where is the sense in this? The location is actually pretty good, especially since Wet Willies (with limited food) is now open next door but the problem lies in the concept rather than the location.

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15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why isn't Wet Willies on the DeathWatch list? I'm surprised no one has be shot there yet. That place is a dump. Ghet-to.

Oh yeah, Urban Flats will deflate before it even open their doors again. As for EVOS in midtown, there is zero activity of it's reopening. Maybe he got smart over night. Bad pizza and burgers, Atlanta's fool proof business plans.

Anonymous said...

absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Anonymous said...

Trust me, if the Wet Willies crowd takes over Urban Flats too it may last a while but Lindbergh will officially be labeled a mini-Atlantic Station.

randy732 said...

Isn't it already? Please it has a Gold Room.

Atlantan99 said...

RE: Lindbergh City Center becoming Atlantic Station... I didn't say that but I can't disagree.

Anonymous said...

So is the real question how do we keep ghetto black people from ruining everything in Atlanta?

Anonymous said...

No, the question is how can we get a better mix of demographics rather than one demographic dominating a spot or area.

Anonymous said...

Trust me I'm ok with whites dominating an area. Does wonders for property values.

Anonymous said...

Wow...racism.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why Wet Willies opened where it is, so they have to import a black crowd every night. Why didn't they just open in the black community, rather than having them come up to Lindbergh every weekend? And why is Wet Willies an all black place anyway? Is it because of the drinks? Are white people not comfortable going there? I was shocked when I wondered in there last year and I was the only white person there. I was very uncomfortable. This type of place is an embarrassment to the city. I've never seen a place like this open in a mixed race/majority white area that only appeals to black people. And they've basically turned the place into a police state/prison, with cops there all weekend, treating everyone like criminals. Why would black people or anyone want to be subjected to treatment like that? This is the most embarrassing place I've ever seen and it adds nothing to the Lindbergh area.

Peachtree Hills Alum said...

Where exactly is this "black community" that you'd have Wet Willie's (Lordy, how I hate that name) open in? This is Atlanta. The "black community" is all over the city.

Lindbergh Vista, Post Lindbergh, Sorrelle, Post Peachtree Hills, Tuscany at Lindbergh, Aventine, Uptown Square, 771 Lindbergh - those are just the apartments I can think of off the top of my head that you can WALK to Urban Flats and Wet Willie's from in five to 15 minutes. You can't possibly think that black people don't live in those apartments.

How is it that a business that's primarily patronized by black people is "an embarrassment?" Who's embarrassed? I'm not. I bet the people who are running it aren't embarrassed when they fill out their deposit slips at the bank.

"...the question is how can we get a better mix of demographics rather than one demographic dominating a spot or area."

If white people won't go to a place because there are "too many" black people there, then it's going to end up looking like a "black place." Once it gets labeled that way, most non-black people won't go anywhere near it because "black places" are scary, dangerous "ghetto" "dumps."
Until non-black people stop being scared to go to places where they see a lot of black people, this sort of thing is going to keep happening.

If you are white, how often do you notice when you're in a place that's entirely or almost entirely full of white people? If you notice, how do you feel about it? Does it just feel "normal?" It shouldn't. Atlanta isn't mostly white. (According to the census it's not mostly *anything* any more.) How does the feeling you get in the mostly white place compare to the feeling you have in a mostly black place? Why?

Anonymous said...

the question is, if you are a non-black, would you go to a place that is all black? 99% of the time the answer will be NO. don't even pretend that you would go. all you liberal hippies stay within your demographics but yet preach about diversity. all of you are a bunch of hypocrites. i don't see the white population buying homes and raising families in Lithonia or Stone Mountain. bottomline is about preserving property value (if there is any left in GA) and safety. how many of you live on Boulevard below North Ave?

we all know the answer to that. it's easy to talk the talk while living in Roswell, Smyrna, Vinings or Alpharetta in your cul-de-sac.

how many times do you read about white teenagers carjacking a SUV and go on a crime spree in Va-Hi, armed robberies, rape and murder.

Anonymous said...

To the 2/9/11, 5:25 Anonymous:

Ever been south of North Avenue on Boulevard? I'm guessing not, as there are some integrated neighborhoods, some majority black neighborhoods, and some majority white neigborhoods. Ever heard of Grant Park? Ormewood Park? Cabbagetown? Old 4th Ward? Or did you just not know where they are?

I'm tired of hearing the "Atlanta's not majority anything anymore" arguments, though. I'm all about diversity, and when you look at a city-wide statistic, we've got it, but when you map out where we all live and where commercial development is, we don't live together and we're sure as hell not mingling as much as we like to think. I'm not trying to play into the 5:25 douchebag's neo-can ranting, but while he misses the point entirely with unfounded generalizations and accusations, there's truth to the idea that we're poor at integrating, something that I genuinely believe most of us want.

And I would say that you read about white teenagers committing crimes and doing stupid shit all of the time, but there's a media bias there (it goes both ways - not just against the poor, helpless neocons). It depends what you read and what angle your news is pushing. And Atlanta's doesn't seem too balanced, so you're more likely to hear about black people committing crimes in white intown neighborhoods than white people committing crimes in white suburbs or black suburbs. The intown stories carry more supposed "risk" for intowners to latch onto, and more of a novelty factor for smug suburbanites to like to stay cocooned at home.

Uncle Zev said...

ate at the firkin the other night because of a restaurant.com offer

loved the food, but it was pretty quiet.....and taco mac has good burgers.....and the hot dog place is pretty cheap.....and five guys pwns


Uncle Zev

The Anti-Gnostic said...

And Atlanta's doesn't seem too balanced, so you're more likely to hear about black people committing crimes in white intown neighborhoods than white people committing crimes in white suburbs or black suburbs.

LOL. Next time you see those suburbanites being victimized by white criminal gangs, you be sure to let us know. K?

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