Sunday, March 30, 2014

Midtown Says "No, Grazie" to La Tagliatella

La Tagliatella has closed in midtown.

La Tagliatella, part of Poland-based AmRest, has closed its midtown location on Peachtree Street at the Shops at Metropolis.  The casual Italian chain restaurant opened in late 2012, and was soon followed by a location at Emory Point on Clifton Road.  The two Atlanta area locations led the chain's entry in North America.  La Tagliatella became part of AmRest following the Polish company's 2011 purchase of Spanish restaurant operator Restauravia. At that time, it was reported that due to La Tagliatella's "exceptionally profitable business model" it would "be one of the main drivers of AmRest's global expansion."

La Tagliatella locations later opened in Arlington, Virginia, Germantown, Maryland, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Coral Gables, Florida.  

Personally, I was not impressed with La Tagliatella on my one and only visit to their midtown location.  The interior design was odd and their food was kinda blah. 

Jon Watson of the AJC gave La Tagliatella's Emory Point location a zero star, "mediocre" rating. Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post was a little kinder when it came to stars, awarding the restaurant a 1/2 star but overall "poor." Sietsema said of La Tagliatella,  Just say "No, grazie" to La Tagliatella, calling it "a threat to our nation." 

The midtown  La Tagliatella posted a sign on its door thanking midtown for their patronage and directing them to their Emory Point location.  The restaurant reportedly closed after dinner service Saturday night.  

Their Emory Point location is on its last leg and I'm amazed AmRest's fast casual concept daVia Italian Market Eating at Perimeter Place in Dunwoody is still open.  I anticipate both restaurants closing within three months.  

The 5,200 square foot midtown restaurant was for seven years Silk, an Asian restaurant, before it closed in May 2011. The space was vacant until La Tagliatella spent plenty on their flashy remodel and eventual late 2012 opening.  

Casual restaurant Newk's Eatery recently opened in the Shops at Metropolis in the former Yes Home space. (The 67-unit fast-casual Newk’s Eatery chain was acquired last week by New York-based private-equity firm Sentinel Capital Partners.)  The chain has four locations open in the Atlanta area with a fifth coming soon to the Village at Druid Hills.  


What would you like to see open in place of La Tagliatella in midtown?  If you ever made it in, did you think the food was as bad as so many diners and critics thought it was?  Have you been to daVia Italian Market Eating? Thoughts?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello -- I liked that the restaurant filled such a vast space in a prominent location. I simply had difficulty finding anything remotely healthy on the menu -- a problem for the fitness-conscious Midtown crowd. And, both times I went for dinner there were service disasters: a nice-enough waitress who repeatedly needed to call on other wait staff to take our order, and an entire pitcher of ice water spilled in the lap of my dinner companion . . . in January! Yes, these were one-time blips, I'm sure. Still -- it was just the wrong restaurant for that location.

TheJohnP said...

I went to lunch there last year and the pizza was decent. Not memorably good, but not memorably bad either.

I actually recently purchased a Half Off Depot deal to here (as HOD was offering a discount on their deals) in order to try it out again. I was going to check on a refund but found that the voucher has already been earmarked to the Emory location now. So this was not unexpected.

Lydia said...

I work nearby and had been a few times for lunch. I liked their pizza, and had the grilled chicken pesto on ciabatta which I thought was pretty good. I also liked the fact that I could bring my dog and sit outside. If another restaurant opens here it needs to appeal to the lunch crowd, as there are enough restaurants nearby that are only open for dinner. It's a great location, so hopefully the next business will be a success.

Anonymous said...

Not surprised. Member of our dinner party had a full glass of red wine dumped in his lap by the server. Nobody screamed or yelled but the server was totally embarrassed and ended up just running out of the restaurant. We felt bad for him. No one apologized, the manager offered to take 10% off the bill after she was convinced that no, everything was not "alright". Stuff happens but its how the management reacts when it does... in this case they did not react well so we never went back.

Anonymous said...

Good riddance, food was terrible along with the service. How about a Belgian Brasserie instead?

Anonymous said...

They didn't market it. I didn't find out until a couple of weeks ago about their happy hour deals.

I'd like a straight bar with good bar food there. Pool tables and dart boards would be awesome!

An awesome wine bar with small plates would be nice as well!

Anonymous said...

I'd like either an authentic New Orleans restaurant (not a Copeland's etc.) run by someone who understands New Orleans. Yes, I know Front Page News is around the corner but I don't find it particularly authentic.

Or, a great (again, authentic) Argentinean steakhouse, along the lines of ones I've visited in Miami.

One persons opinion said...

Marketing wasn't their problem. Service was. Some of their options weren't terrible but others should've never been on a menu. Last time I went in February our waiter had so little training he had no idea what the 4 sauces listed on the menu were. No idea at all. Each and every question I asked him regarding the menu required him to go ask someone else. I felt bad for him as management should've never let him on the floor like that.

Anonymous said...

I thought their spicy marinara sauce was really good. The pizza was unremarkable, but I prefer more traditional pizza anyway. As others have said, the service was a little sketchy at times, but I never had any awful experiences. A nice bar or a steak place that's not quite as expensive as STK would be cool.

Anonymous said...

I went once. Plastic menus, strip-mall marketing and juts meh food. Too much competition to just sorta be generically terrible.

Anonymous said...

This restaurant needed to close. I am surprised it took this long. It's departure from the restaurant scene gives credibility to Atlanta.

Sweet critic said...

Chipotle please!!!!!

Sweet critic said...

Chipotle please!!!

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