Sunday, September 9, 2012

It's a Wrap at Waffold After Less Than 45 Days

Waffold in Morningside has closed.


The "Gourmet Waffle Sandwich" shop opened July 31st and closed sometime yesterday.  The closure was sudden and left many, including early morning walkers this morning, scratching their heads.  The restaurant replaced the relatively long lived burger joint Burger Tap and blamed its closure on "a series of unfortunate circumstances."  

Though the restaurant's twitter account had over 75 followers, it had never tweeted a single message.  On Facebook, however, where the restaurant had attracted nearly 300 "likes," there was far more activity.  As recently as Friday morning the restaurant was inviting fans to join them for weekend brunch and BYOB mimosas and Bloody Marys.  Additionally, there was to be a media event held early next week that obviously won't be happening.  

After first breaking the news of both Burger Tap's closure and Waffold's imminent opening in July, I was contacted by a PR firm that represents a California-based concept called Bruxie, similar to Waffold.  The PR firms representative indicated that Waffold was a 100% copy of Bruxie and that her client was the creator of "Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches," a phrase she claimed they had trademarked.  For what it's worth, Bruxie is a three-unit chain and has been in business for over two years.  

Though I opted not to publish this email, other media did and soon Waffold announced it would not use the phrase "Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches," replacing it in many places with simply "Waffle Sandwiches."  This change in branding was evident on their official website, facebook, and twitter, but not on the actual building and exterior signage where "Gourmet Waffle Sandwiches" was still being used.  

The restaurant had received a fair amount of attention from traditional media including Where Magazine, JEZEBEL magazine and Better Mornings Atlanta, but perhaps the attention it garnered backfired given their branding issues.  

I questioned the longterm future of such a gimmicky product but readers went a step further calling for the business to be "DeathWatched", saying it would not last and would likely soon fail.  I, like most in Atlanta, never want to see someone fail, but this appears to be yet another example of a half-baked idea missing both dotted "I's" and crossed "T's."

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

4 comments:

TheJohnP said...

Heard some good things about the place, but never had a chance to try them out. Wonder if litigation forced them to shut down?

JR said...

Shocked! This place was awffold!

Anonymous said...

It appears TNT "scooped" the AJC by at least three days on the closing of Waffold -- the latter naturally failing to provide any attribution.

Atlantan99 said...

@Anon,

Thank you for reading the blog and for recognizing that. Creative Loafing and that other blog also both ran with what I first reported days after I broke it. I have to admit that I was tipped off of its closing by a loyal TNT reader and she deserves some credit too. Also, props to Eater Atlanta for providing attribution to me for breaking the story.

I could not continue this blog without the tips and emails from loyal readers like yourself.

Thank you for your continued readership and for your comments today.

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