Friday, September 11, 2015

Anchor Down Grille & Lounge Quietly Drops Into Lindbergh

New restaurant quietly opens.

Anchor Down Grille & Lounge is the latest eatery to open at the corner of Morosgo Drive and Piedmont Road near the Lindbergh MARTA station.  Anchor Down occupies the roughly 3,700 square foot freestanding restaurant that has previously housed a number of failed restaurants including Encore Restaurant Atmosphere, Infusion Bistro and Jenean’s Caribbean Bar & Grill.  

Anchor has its "soft" opening yesterday and will celebrate a "Grand Opening" next Wednesday, September 16th. A Facebook page dedicated to the grand opening described the establishment as follows:

"Completely decked out with a ship feel that'll have you feeling like your getting ready for an oceanic voyage - Anchor Down is the in-town mouthwatering staycation just a cruise away!"

According to the facebook page, Anchor Down is also somehow related to Anchor Bar, a bar and tattoo shop on Piedmont Avenue near Cheshire Bridge Road.  

"Anchor Bar - best known for it's amazing tattoo work & doubling as THE goto spot for action after your favorite Buckhead bars & nightclubs close - brings an all new twist to the restaurant scene as they built the next pillar of Buckhead with an sexy, upscale twist geared towards the nightlife elite close enough to walk - short enough for an ideal uber trip that'll have you wondering where you even started your night before!"

According to the Anchor Down website, the restaurant has a rather generic menu: 

"At Anchor Down Grille & Lounge in Atlanta, GA, we have a full menu, including: 

Appetizers 

Burgers 
Entrees 
Salads 
Sandwiches 
Side Orders 
Soups 
Vegetarian Options 

Whether you’re looking for something light or you came ready to eat, we’re the place to be."

I stopped by the restaurant for their soft opening and found the sample "menu" to be largely accurate with a few additions.  The restaurant offers both an 8 oz New York Strip ($22.95) and an 8 oz Filet Mignon ($30.95) as well as about a half dozen sandwich, salad and breakfast options.  

Overall, the menu and space lack originality, but heck, when you've just left Tongue & Groove or Gold Room and are drunk, who really cares?  

Does this place sound like an improvement over prior tenants in the space?  Does the description of this enterprise remind you of this place or that place?  If Anchor Down is unsuccessful, what would do you think would succeed in the space? 

Please share your thoughts below. 

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tough location. Needs a patio. Building must have a hex on it. Opening going into off season makes this very tough.

AJ said...

Wish them nothing but the best but that building is just not suited for a business anymore. So many failed businesses and it's just not appealing to the eye. If I am going to eat somewhere, I don't want my first reaction to be "ewww, look at this place." That block is just ripe for re-development with that former Shoney's right next door. What is the holdup?!?! You have any intel on that property?

Anonymous said...

Can't we ever bring some class and sophistication to Lindbergh instead of another mediocre club for the millennials? Don't we have enough of these already? How about something that's open during the daytime that God forbid you can bring your kids to that doesn't have the smell of alcohol and cigarettes? Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

The misuse of "your" makes my head hurt.

SB said...

This, the old Shoneys, and the empty grass will all be apartments eventually. The site was meant for two high rise condos. It would already be apartments if the owner wasn't holding out for more vertical development (ie 20 stories not 4-5).

Anonymous said...

Need some condos, not more apartments. Lindbergh has too many apartments as it is and not enough buying options.

Anonymous said...

Lets hope this place is a better neighbor than their counterpart tattoo business that lets its customers block the driveways to neighboring businesses.

Anonymous said...

A business can not control where their customers park off site so, Anchor Bar isn't "letting" their customers do anything. It is the responsibility of the neighboring businesses to police and enforce their own parking.

Anonymous said...

Actually not correct, Anchor Bar at Piedmont and Cheshire bridge has hired help that are valet parking patrons cars into neighboring business parking lots illegally. In addition, hope that the Lindbergh neighborhood is ready for an establishment which draws most of its customers from outside of its neighborhoods and actively serves alcohol after hours - also illegal.

Anonymous said...

Anchor Bar is an interesting beast and a prime example of break the rules and ask for forgiveness after. It seems to be working quite well. I go past the Anchor Location at just before 6 am on weekday mornings and people are pouring out of the club. My understanding was that all bars had to close by 3 am. Just like Room Service Lounge up the street, this place will eventually break the rules enough to get closed down...but at what cost? I'd be very upset if I was a neighbor of this mess.

Anonymous said...

What would really be nice is that if the eyesore area on Piedmont north of the Anchor and south of Chick Fil A that is currently a fenced off pit were ever cleaned up and developed. It's way past time that the city or a developer or someone took control of this land and did something with it.

Jeanette said...

Anchor Down does have a patio, is a smoke free environment and is a restaurant, not a club. There are high chairs available so that families can enjoy the ambient environment comfortably for both Lunch and dinner with weekend breakfast coming soon as well. The parking lot has a lot of available spaces and there is a valet service offered for busier evenings. The cuisine is excellent and the staff is very focused on creating a classy, pleasant dining experience for all guests. The building and location are both prime. The vacant neighboring property is not owned by Anchor Down owners, thus we have no way to create an esthetic change on that persons lot. This area needed a nice, new restaurant offering outside of the typical franchises saturating the square blocks in all directions. Don't knock it before you try it is always my best advice.

Anonymous said...

Ah, BS Jeanette. It IS a nightclub (https://www.facebook.com/anchordownatlanta/ ) and a dangerous one at that. Hopefully, it will be closed down after last weekend's shooting.

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