Monday, June 16, 2014

Amura Sleeps With the Fishes at Terminus

Buckhead sushi restaurant appears closed.

Amura, a sushi & steak restaurant at Terminus in Buckhead has "closed due to a serious kitchen equipment malfunction," but looks to be closed for good.  Amura, with three locations in the Orlando area, branched out to Buckhead last year when it replaced MF Sushi at Terminus.

Amura opened at a time when established players Tomo and Taka were already entrenched in Buckhead, and newcomer UMI was a hit from the start.  Amura never really got any press or notoriety and had the disadvantage of being located within Terminus.  Whereas UMI become known as the "it" spot for celebrities intown, Amura was just kind of there... an option.

I reached out to the Amura locations in Orlando, all of which were seemingly in the dark about the "malfunction" in Buckhead.  An employee at the Buckhead location with whom I made contact today did not verbally confirm the restaurant was closed, but seemed to say so with his gestures.  

Interestingly, no announcement of any kind has been made either via Amura's Facebook or Twitter accounts and as of 12:15PM, Amura's phone goes unanswered.  (Amura normally opens at 11:15AM.)  

Amura is "temporarily offline" from reservations website OpenTable.

Perhaps there really was a "serious kitchen equipment malfunction," but if there wasn't, it's a little surprising that Amura would have been seeking new employees in mid-May if they planned to close just a month later.  (Amura posted to its Facebook page they were seeking "experienced host / hostess" on May 15th)  

If closed for good, Amura would be the second restaurant closure at Terminus in just the past month.  Here to Serve's Cantina restaurant closed at the end of May.  When I broke the news of Cantina's closure, I recapped other business closures at the center, of which there have been many.  This post also received a number of comments where people griped about the parking situation, a problem to which many attribute the business failures.   

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Malfunction was probably due to Kitchen equipment being repossessed.

Anonymous said...

Lucky's Burger and Brew opened today in Town Brookhaven

Anonymous said...

Why do restaurants go to such great lengths (lies) to conceal their failure?

Cynthia Hyde said...

Amura did not close due to kitchen failure. It closed due to management failure and an unwillingness to promote, or adhere to modern business practices. Myself, and the majority of the staff didn't even receive notice of closure until less than 12 hours before our next scheduled work day. Some people didn't receive any notice and showed up to work to find that sorry excuse of an explanation posted on the door. Many companies have a factor of misdirection, some have poor leadership, some have individuals that put their own personal gain above that of the entire company. So I speak not just for myself, but on behalf of all of us that put in genuine, relentless effort everyday into serving those who frequented our restaurant, such was not the case. I can not speak for those putting this misinformation out, but for everyone else, Amura meant more than a job, we were a family that spent everyday together giving Buckhead great food. Terminus did not just lose another option for lunch, they lost a group of individuals who knew everyone by name, who remembered their favorite lunches, who worked hard and over-time to bring you the best service and quality of food a sushi lover could ask for, along with the kind of genuine sociability you can't teach. I am personally disheartened for those I spent the last year working with. However, I am especially concerned with influence this report will dictate on those of us who loyally worked for Amura, with finding other work in the future. So I say again, it was not the kitchen that caused this establishment to decline. The cleanliness or quality of products were never in question and it is truly disturbing that such statements have been made.

Thank you for reading.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Cynthia. But that still doesn't explain why restaurant owners cook up lies in the form of kitchen fires and renovations when they close. Why not just say "we're closed"?

Cynthia Hyde said...

Anonymous, it wasn't the owners who cooked up lies. It was an individual who put that information out. Amura as a whole, should not be targeted in a line of questioning that should be directed at the misuse of power and lack of personal responsibility in some current corporate structures.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to hear about amura, I thought the sushi was excellent there. I will say it must be very difficult to open a satellite restaurant an 8 hour drive away from your home base. I have also been to the amura on sand lake road in orlando, and you could tell an owner was nearby. Things just seems to be better run there. Maybe they should have opened a tampa location before jumping all the way to Atlanta.

Anonymous said...

Terminus management told the bldg residents today that Amura closed on Monday. Amazing that 2 restaurants have closed in the complex within two weeks though Cantina's closing has been rumored for a very long time.

Anonymous said...

They thought they'd just roll into Atlanta and show them how it's done. Just like Modern tried to do, and Emeril, and the many other "outsiders" that do not understand this town.

Besides the basic kneejerk advertising/marketing they didn't do much to promote the spot. All I saw was a coupon and a sidewalk board.

Nice try.

Anonymous said...

Let's be real, here. I work in Terminus with hundreds of co-workers, along with hundreds of other people from other companies.

99% of us leave this campus at 4-5pm in the afternoon. We don't come back for dinner. We don't come back on the weekends. We don't come for a movie and pop over for a drink. People that DON'T work here aren't driving here to park on the 11th floor and have nothing else to do other than that one thing you came to do. The mix of retail/food is unrealistic for a destination.

We stay in our neighborhoods, be it Brookhaven or Alpharetta.

What do Terminus employees want? Lunch that doesn't take an hour. Lunch under $10. Maybe a place for happy hour once in a while.

Give us a lunch food court and watch it stay packed. Charge a reasonable rent and end the revolving door disaster.

Look across the street. Restaurants by Kroger (and Kroger cafe) are packed every day. And guess what, I brought my kids to Piu Bella for pizza this weekend on the way home from the zoo. I parked right in front of the store! Amazing concept.

Inc will close it doors within months, book it. Sad but true. They are overpriced and too slow for much repeat business.

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