HomeGoods and BURN Studios to Heat Up the Buckhead Market Next Year

Powers Ferry Square has finally filled the anchor space in its north Buckhead shopping center and it was worth the wait! The 25,935 square foot space will be filled by not one, but two new businesses.  HomeGoods will occupy about 21,300 square feet, while local fitness facility BURN Studios will occupy about 4,700 square feet.  

The HomeGoods at Suburban Plaza

Uncle Maddio's Can't Handle The Heat Near Cumberland Mall, Sells to Blaze Pizza

Uncle Maddio's Pizza at Akers Mill Square has closed. The QSR pizza restaurant which opened in 2012 and was one of the first franchises of the Atlanta based chain, closed after lunch yesterday, August 29.  Signage posted to the restaurant's front door states that "we have decided to sell our business."

Iron Age Bringing DIY BBQ to Sandy Springs

Iron Age Korean Steak House has secured a lease at The Prado in Sandy Springs.  The restaurant will open in the approximately 8,100 square foot former Kobe Steaks space.  Kobe Steaks closed at The Prado in 2014 after nearly 40 years in business.  

Bits & Bites [Atlanta Commercial Real Estate News]

ZEUS Fresh Greek Street Food plans to open this week on Powers Ferry Road in Marietta.  The new quick serve Greek eatery will feature a variety of mezze (appetizers) as well as gyros and other Greek fare.  ToNeTo Atlanta was first to report on the planned restaurant this past December when it was confirmed that they would replace Doc Green's.  ZEUS is is owned by the same group that runs Prickly Pear Taqueria in Midtown and Mambo Italiano at The Forum in Norcross.

Kimco Schedules Embry Village Demolition This Week, Refuses Comment on its Plans

Kimco Realty, the New Hyde Park, New York-based owner of Embry Village shopping center, posted signage this past week at the DeKalb County center informing existing tenants and area residents of upcoming demolition at the shopping center.  

The former Motel 

Sandy Springs Chick-fil-A Closes, Reopening Expected In January

On the heels of the closure of the Chick-fil-A at North Druid Hills and Briarcliff Roads, the company has now also closed its Drive-Thru Only (DTO) location on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.  Both locations are being demolished and rebuilt with the chain's modern day look and feel.  The restaurant, located just north of Northridge Road and just south of the recently reopened Wendy's, is being demolished this week with plans to reopen in January.  The restaurant's physical address is 8433 Roswell Road.  

Ford Fry Goes Fast Casual For New Piedmont Heights Restaurant

Yesterday, Lauren Lestin, Director of PR for Ford Fry Restaurants, distributed a brief statement confirming that Ford Fry will be opening a new restaurant at 1878 Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta.  Interestingly, ToNeTo Atlanta has been inquiring about this exact property for over a year, with Lestin (who took the position in January) asserting for the past eight months that she had no knowledge of any plans for a Ford Fry restaurant at this location.

Banks Continue to Invest in Branches, Displacing Restaurants in the Process

In an era of mobile banking, cashless businesses and financial apps like Venmo and Square, you'd think banks would be reducing their branch presence, but strangely, the opposite is happening.  

Westplan Investors "Swings For The Fences" With Giant Mixed Use Development Near SunTrust Park

Atlanta based Westplan Investors is planning a large mixed use development (MUD) near SunTrust Park in Smyrna.  The project, which could total over 525,000 square feet, would replace an aging and largely vacant 70s era office complex, as well as a largely vacant strip center. 

Bits & Bites [Atlanta Commercial Real Estate News]

Carlo's Bake Shop will open their second Atlanta area location next month at Cumberland Mall.  The first shop opened this past April at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody.  The new shop, which looks just like the Perimeter Mall location is in place but still needs to be built out internally and staffed. Sources say the new shop is on track to open Friday,   September 16 in the center court of Cumberland Mall.   Carlo's Bake Shop is based in Hoboken, New Jersey and is owned by Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro, Jr., star of the popular TLC reality show "Cake Boss."   Both Perimeter and Cumberland Malls are owned and operated by General Growth Properties (GGP).  

M572 Surrenders, Will Close This Weekend

Tucker's M572 announced earlier this afternoon that they will be closing this weekend after two years in business.  The restaurant, located on Main Street in downtown Tucker, opened in 2015 and was helmed by executive chef Jon Allen, a native of Lilburn and current resident of nearby Smoke Rise.  M572 was owned by the same group that ran neighboring eatery The Local No. 7.  

Ashley Plans to Furnish Alpharetta With a New Center

Ashley Furniture HomeStore, which opened their Alpharetta location this past summer, plans to add a small strip center to the outparcel of its property.  New plans ToNeTo Atlanta recently obtained indicate that the retailer plans to construct a single nearly 10,000 square foot building that will include  three tenants: two restaurants and one "retail."  The center, "Ashley Pointe," will be located near the intersection of North Point Parkway and Haynes Bridge Road, near North Point Mall. 

Click to enlarge 

BRIO Tuscan Grille to Bid "Ciao" to Dunwoody

BRIO Tuscan Grille plans to shutter its Dunwoody restaurant just a few short weeks after closing its Buckhead location.   Sources confirm to ToNeTo Atlanta that the Dunwoody restaurant, located on Ashford Parkway just off Ashford Dunwoody, is expected to close after dinner service on Sunday, September 17th. 

"Shark" Backed Cousins Maine Lobster To Attack Lenox Square

Buckhead's Lenox Square will welcome the first East Coast brick-and-mortar location of Cousins Maine Lobster later this fall.  The eatery, which claims to serve the best Maine lobster rolls, will be located in a 1,150 square foot space across from Bantam + Biddy, around the corner from True Food Kitchen.  

The existing Cousins Maine Lobster in West Hollywood 

DUA and Fish Bowl Poke Coming to Midtown and Toco Hills

DUA Vietnamese Noodle Soup and its sibling concept, Fish Bowl Poke, both have new locations in the works in Atlanta.  

Arby's Thinking Coke in 2018

The Coca-Cola Company has won the contract to sell soft drinks at quick-serve chain Arby’s.  The contract is a coup for the Atlanta-based beverage giant as they unseated their rival PepsiCo Inc. in the process.   The deal will add more than 3,200 Arby’s locations to Coca-Cola’s portfolio of restaurant clients.

Arby's latest logo and restaurant design

Rize Artisan Pizza Will Soon Disappear From Sandy Springs Too

Edward "Eddie" Russell, previously "Director Culinary Operations Rize Holdings, LLC," is reportedly now the owner of Rize Pizza Sandy Springs, which will soon be renamed, according to a post on his personal Instagram page earlier this week. As Russell says in his post, he joined the Rize team a little over a year ago, and things have not exactly gone as he, or anyone else for that matter, expected.

[EXCLUSIVE] "Antico Laboratorio" to Debut at Little Italia This Fall

ToNeTo Atlanta has come a long way since I created it while a student in the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality Administration at Georgia State University in 2008.  

I recall vividly foodie friends of mine "kidnapping me" from class to head over to what was then the new Antico Pizza Napoletana, a rough, limited, but already wildly popular pizzeria that had opened near Georgia Tech in Home Park in 2009.  While few knew then the impact the pizzeria would have, there is no question that its opening sparked increased interest in the area.

Di Palma's "Little Italia"

Significant Storage Space Planned For Briarcliff Road

Public Storage, the largest self-storage company in the country by square footage, plans to build a new facility on Briarcliff Road near Whole Foods Market.  If you're thinking they already have a facility on Briarcliff Road near Whole Foods Market, you're right, they do.

The current Public Storage facility

Got Crabs? Joe's Crab Shack Shutters Over 40 Locations, Including Duluth Restaurant

In recent weeks, Ignite Restaurant Group has shuttered more than 40 locations across the country in wake of its June Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.  The company, owner of the Joe's Crab Shack and Brick House Tap + Tavern concepts, was won August 7th by Landry’s Inc., (which like Ignite, is based in Houston, Texas) in a bankruptcy auction.

[EXCLUSIVE] Zunzi's and Their Famous Conquistador Sandwich Plan to Conquer Atlanta

Zunzi's, a quick serve restaurant specializing in "South African inspired" fare, plans to open a location on Howell Mill Road by the end of the year.  The eatery, which has one location open in Savannah, will occupy an approximately 2,300 square foot space at 1971 Howell Mill Road, a couple of doors down from local watering hole Mr. C's.   Zunzi's, which plans to add patio seating, will open in place of what was most recently Salsa Havana, and before that, Mary Jordan Catering. 

Bits & Bites [Atlanta Commercial Real Estate News]

Earlier this week, the Omni Hotel at The Battery Atlanta announced that their onsite restaurant will be helmed by celebrity chef Hugh Acheson.  The new restaurant, Achie's, "will provide world-class, Southern-inspired fare" for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The hotel and restaurant are expected to open early next year. Acheson's First & Third Hot Dog and Sausage Shack is already open at The Battery, and will be joined later this fall by Punch Bowl Social, a bowling and restaurant concept for which Acheson is the "culinary partner." In addition to these concepts, Acheson operates Empire State South in midtown Atlanta, Spiller Park Coffee at Ponce City Market along with  5 & 10 and The National in Athens.  A second Spiller Park Coffee is expected to open at Toco Hills Shopping Center in the coming weeks, potentially as soon as August 25.  

Inside the upcoming Spiller Park at Toco Hills

Michel Arnette to Open New Steakhouse in Brookhaven

Michel Arnette of Word of Mouth Restaurants plans to open in Brookhaven a new steakhouse early next year.  The Steakhouse, something Brookhaven has been without, will open in the new "Apple Valley Brookhaven" project at 2700 Apple Valley Road. 

 A view of the future patio at Arnette's 

Corso Coffee Kaput, The Mourning Dove to Hatch at The Shops Buckhead Atlanta

Corso Coffee at The Shops Buckhead Atlanta will make its last cappuccino tomorrow.  The upscale Italian coffee shop and cafe which opened at the posh Buckhead development in late 2014 is closing at 6PM tomorrow, the result, I'm told, of a "disagreement with the landlord" [Oliver McMillan.]

Genki Sushi Buckhead Claims it Closed to Complete A Renovation

Genki Noodles & Sushi in Buckhead has  "temporarily closed for renovations."  The restaurant, located at 3186 Roswell Road in the heart of the Buckhead bar district, posted a sign on their door Friday indicating the closure and directing would-be patrons to the restaurant's other locations in Virginia Highland and Sandy Springs. 

[UPDATE] Rize Artisan Pizza Has Flatlined in Poncey-Highland

Rize Artisan Pizza + Salads has closed its location at the 975 North Highland development on North Highland Avenue in Poncey-Highland.  The pizza-centric restaurant's Poncey-Highland location was the first of two locations opened by the fledgling chain. The intown location opened this past November, followed by the Sandy Springs location earlier this past March. Rize posted signs to the doors of  their Poncey-Highland location earlier this evening saying: "PERMANENTLY CLOSED STARTING 8/10/2017."

Former Bachelorette Contestant Bringing Big New Restaurant to Dawsonville

Giorgio's Family Kitchen, an established OTP restaurant since 1991, is looking to open a second location next year. The original Giorgio's is located in Lakeland Plaza in Cumming. The new Giorgio's will be located just north of the North Georgia Premium Outlets in Dawsonville.  

Constantine, standing back left, with his family

Bits & Bites [Atlanta Commercial Real Estate News]

Atlanta's Farm Burger celebrated the grand opening of its newest restaurant in Memphis yesterday, its first in the River City.  The restaurant is located in "Crosstown Concourse," which like Ponce City Market in Atlanta is a former Sears distribution center given a new lease on life.  The first Farm Burger opened in Decatur in 2010.  Since then the mini-chain has added local restaurants in Buckhead and Dunwoody as well as grown out of state more recently.  The first out-of-state Farm Burger opened in downtown Asheville, North Carolina in 2013.  

The new Farm Burger at Crosstown Concourse in Memphis, Tennessee

Cook Out Can't Get Enough of Cobb County

Cobb County may be getting yet another Cook Out.  The Thomasville, North Carolina-based fast food chain has submitted plans to Cobb County to build a new restaurant on South Cobb Drive, just off I-285, in Smyrna.  The new restaurant would occupy a roughly one acre parcel and would replace an existing Shell gas station and convenience store at 5121 South Cobb Drive.

Typical Cook Out exterior 

El Torero to Shutter August 25th After 25 Years at Brighten Park

The El Torero Mexican restaurant at Brighten Park will close Friday August 25th.  The restaurant, located around the corner from Moe's Southwest Grill in a 2,800 square foot space, has been a popular casual Mexican restaurant in the area for many nearby residents. 

Late-Night Taco Joint Planned For Former 4th & Swift Space

The owners of The Mercury in Ponce City Market and The Pinewood in Decatur plan to open a few new restaurants later this year.  First up with be "The Deep End," a new late night taco restaurant and bar, opening in the former 4th & Swift space at Southern Dairies on North Avenue, across the street from Ponce City Market.  

The dining room as 4th & Swift 

[Opening Alert] Wade's Fine Eatery & Good Time Emporium to Open August 8th

Wade's Fine Eatery & Good Time Emporium, the new restaurant ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported would be opening in Smyrna last year, plans to open Tuesday August 8th.  The new restaurant, located on Concord Road near the new Concord Linear Park, will be open at 5pm for dinner starting Tuesday, and will continue dinner only hours for the next two weeks, according to co-owner Jason McClure.

UnitedHealthcare Pulls the Plug on Harken Health

Following news this past May that UnitedHeathcare was abandoning their experimental Harken Health independent subsidiary, all locations have closed.  The concept, which combined health insurance and care under one roof, was launched in late 2015 in the Chicago and Atlanta markets exclusively.  Plans were to test the concept in the two pilot cities and then expand it with Florida said to have been their next intended market.

Yogli Mogli Buckhead Succumbs To Summer Heat

Yogli Mogli has closed their location at Lenox Village on Lenox Road in Buckhead.  The shop, which opened in late 2011, was one of many FroYo joints that popped up during the dessert's peak of popularity. 

Reese Witherspoon's Draper James to Open in Buckhead

According to building permits recently filed with the City of Atlanta, Draper James, a southern-inspired women's boutique owned by actress Reese Witherspoon, plans to open a new shop at Buckhead's Shops Around Lenox.  The store, which according to the permits will be 2,150 square feet, will open in suite 214, a space currently occupied by fab'rik, an Atlanta based boutique franchise.  

Inside the newest Draper James in Lexington, Kentucky 

Last to Lease, First Watch Finds Home in Chamblee's New Peachtree Station

A representative of S.J. Collins Enterprises, the development firm behind the upcoming Peachtree Station project, confirmed to ToNeTo Atlanta earlier today that the space previously leased to YEAH! Burger will instead open as First Watch, a breakfast restaurant.  Last week, when ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively released the opening date for the center's anchor, Whole Foods Market, we also confirmed that YEAH! Burger was no longer part of the project.  Rumors of First Watch replacing them had swirled for months, but due to unspecified "confidentiality issues," the firm delayed confirming the breakfast eatery's participation in the project until today.  

A typical First Watch restaurant 

Dizzying Drama in the Dollar Store Domain

Following the May closure of a number of Family Dollar stores in metro Atlanta and around the country, the retailer is coming back to at least one neighborhood.

The new Family Dollar should look similar to this 

[UPDATE] North Druid Hills Chick-fil-A to Close Next Week

ToNeTo Atlanta has been the only local news site keeping residents informed of the upcoming closure of the Chick-fil-A restaurant at North Druid Hills and Briarcliff Roads.  The restaurant, the first freestanding Chick-fil-A, opened April 16, 1986 and is currently expected to close at 2PM on Friday August 11.  

Dotan Zuckerman Flees Fuqua to Join Pfohl at New Firm

Dotan Zuckerman has resigned his position at Atlanta's Fuqua Development to accept a new job at Columbia Development Group (CDG) in Columbia, South Carolina. ToNeTo Atlanta was first to report last April when Zuckerman chose to leave North American Properties (NAP) to join Fuqua Development. While ToNeTo Atlanta first learned of  Zuckerman's departure late last month, his new title and role was made official today in a release from his new firm.

Bits & Bites [Atlanta Commercial Real Estate News]

The existing Chick-fil-A restaurant on Roswell Road in East Cobb known as the East Lake location, closed July 15 for a full remodel.  According to the restaurant's Facebook page, a reopening is expected "within two weeks," with an exact date expected to be revealed this week.  

New Development Planned for Site of Historic Goodwin House in Brookhaven

Gipco Southern, Inc., an Atlanta based real estate development firm, plans to construct a new, approximately 50,000 square foot building on Peachtree Road near Colonial Drive.  The project, which is located just north of the new Walgreens and Piedmont Healthcare facility (which Gipson also developed), is slated to be three stories with plans to include both retail/restaurant tenants as well as offices.   According to Gipson, the new building will compliment the Walgreens building and will be "timeless and classic" in design. 

[EXCLUSIVE] Upcoming BBQ Concept Loyal Q & Brew Secures Second Site

Soon to open barbecue eatery Loyal Q and Brew has secured its second location.  The first Loyal Q is expected to open the week of August 15th at Parkaire Landing shopping center in East Cobb.  The second location will be on Old Milton Parkway in Alpharetta in the former Five Seasons Brewery space.  Loyal Q is the "barbecue concept" I reported in June would replace the brewery and restaurant.  

Outback Steakhouse Seeks Space on Snellville's Scenic Highway

A new location of Tampa, Florida-based Outback Steakhouse is planned for Scenic Highway in Snellville.   The new freestanding restaurant would be built in an outparcel of the new Park Place development, already home to Cracker Barrel, Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers and Zaxby's.  

The new Outback Steakhouse should look similar to this