Friday, September 30, 2016

LA-Based Poké Joint Takes Over Former Sandy Springs Schnitzel Shop

Schnitzel joint has flown the coop 
Seven Hens, a chicken schnitzel eatery which opened its first location in Decatur in 2012 and added a second location in Sandy Springs in 2014, has closed both units.     

As I reported this past April, Seven Hens founder/owner Michael Gurevich had planned to grow the concept nationally, but decided to sell the business and relocate overseas.  While the option to buy the business and continue to operate both units as Seven Hens was available, that ultimately did not happen.   

Both restaurants closed within the past few days, with deals having been finalized this week to replace both with new concepts.  The Shumacher Group, Inc. and Steve Josovitz represented Gurevich in both sales. Irving Jacobson of The Shumacher represented the buyers in both transactions.

As I reported earlier today, the Decatur location will reopen "soon" as Bull Gogi, a Korean street food eatery.    

The Sandy Springs location, occupying about 1,500 square feet in the Publix-anchored Abernathy Square shopping center, will reopen as  Poké Bar.     

Sources say the restaurant could open before the end of the year, but that may be overly optimistic. 

Los Angeles-based  Poké Bar opened their first restaurant in March of 2015, and has since expanded in northern and southern California.  The Sandy Springs location will be  Poké Bar's first location outside their home state.  There are currently fourteen  Poké Bar locations with a fifteenth coming soon to Santana Row in San Jose, California.     

While the company does offer franchising, the Sandy Springs location will reportedly be company owned.     

Poke, in case you are unfamiliar, is exploding in popularity on the west coast and is slowly making its way to the east coast.   As described by  Poké Bar,  "  Poké is a raw salad served in Hawaiian cuisine. We have taken this classic dish and put several twists to it. We use tuna, salmon, albacore, shrimp, octopus, scallop and tofu with different mixtures including seaweed, onions, kale and more to create a fresh, light, delicious meal."   

In addition to  Poké Bar, another sushi and poke joint is opening in Atlanta.  Boruboru Sushi, a restaurant I first announced would be opening in Emory Point, is still coming, albeit later than expected.  Due to "unforeseen construction delays," the restaurant's opening, which was originally planned for August and later September, has now been pushed to an unconfirmed date "soon."

Will you miss Seven Hens?  Have you been to  Poké Bar or another similar eatery?  Where else would you like to see Poké Bar open in metro Atlanta?

Please share your thoughts below.  

3 comments:

Jenna said...

I liked Seven Hens, too bad!

Anonymous said...

I walked into Seven Hens a couple months ago to give it a try at 5 minutes before 11:00 The employee boldly told me they were closed. I asked what time do you open? She said 11:00. I left

Anonymous said...

There's no accent over the "e" in poke, either in the actual word or in Poke Bar's name.

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