Wednesday, April 25, 2018

[EXCLUSIVE] RHOA's Kandi Burruss Bringing Old Lady Gang to East Point

Just over a year after the opening of the original Old Lady Gang on Peters Street in Castleberry Hill, owners Kandi Burruss-Tucker and husband Todd Tucker have inked a deal to open a second location.  The new Old Lady Gang will open in a 2,800 square foot space in Camp Creek Marketplace on Camp Creek Parkway in East Point.  The new restaurant will replace the short-lived Boneheads which lasted less than two years in business.  

The Old Lady Gang (OLG) is the vision of the Tuckers but is based on the recipes of Kandi's family growing up in the south.  (Mr. Tucker is a New York native.)   While Kandi mastered some of the traditional family recipes, the true kitchen mavens and inspirations for the restaurant came from her mother Joyce Jones and aunts Bertha Jones & Nora Wilcox, affectionately known as the “Old Lady Gang."

OLG, which is a full service restaurant, features traditional southern fare such as "Riley's" shrimp & grits, "aunt Bertha's" fried chicken and "aunt Nora's" fried catfish strips.  

The new location is nearby to where Kandi, who turns 42 on May 17, grew up in College Park.  Kandi, like Outkast members Big Boi and Andre 3000, graduated from Tri-Cities High School, about eight miles from the new restaurant.  

Kandi, originally best known as a member of the popular 90s female r&b group Xscape, is today best recognized as a star of the hit Bravo reality show The Real Housewives of Atlanta.  Kandi joined the show in its second season in 2009 and is today one of the show's primary cast members.  The show, which has garnered a tremendous following, provides Kandi a huge platform on which to promote her business.  Fans of the series followed along as Kandi and her husband were under construction with and eventually opened their first OLG during the show's ninth season.  

When the restaurant did open, Kandi and her husband purposefully had a "soft opening," not blasting the opening across social media and holding off on a grand opening until the kinks were worked out and she was pleased with the service and product being offered.  

"I want to be open for a month before we do a big grand opening, and that's just because clearly people are just waiting for something negative to say about me," she told The Daily Dish last year. 

Since opening last March, OLG has received over 700 Yelp.com reviews with a cumulative rating of 3.5 stars.  The restaurant seems to struggle with consistency though having received in the past week, seven five star reviews, four one star reviews and two two star reviews.  

One review on April 19 said "Hands down the worst restaurant I've been to in Atlanta!" while another on April 22 said  "The service is absolutely horrible!" 

Two other reviews on April 24 said "Great food and customer service." and  "Food was amazing."

ToNeTo Atlanta considers Peachtree Center's Aviva by Kameel the gold standard for Yelp reviews.  Open since 2012, Aviva by Kameel, a Mediterranean eatery and juice bar has received over 1000 reviews with a cumulative five star rating. 

With luck Kandi and her team can get the consistency issues ironed out make Old Lady Gang as successful as it can be. The new restaurant should open later summer/early fall.   

Have you been to Old Lady Gang?  What is your favorite southern restaurant in Atlanta?  Where would you like to see Kandi open the next Old Lady Gang?

Please share your thoughts below.  

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wish this were opening up in downtown East Point! My favorites are Homegrown and OK Cafe.

Anonymous said...

Why even mention Aviva by Kameel? Weird promo of it and/or dig at OLG.

Anonymous said...

An African-American celebrity-owned establishment struggling with consistent good service? Color me shocked.

Anonymous said...

Knowing Kandi and Todd’s personality, they are likely chalking up the negative reviews simply to “haters”. However, what they need to realize is that “foodies” will cheer them on, want them to succeed, and will give an honest review. If there are negative reviews about food and service, unfortunately they’re likely true. Kandi is a perfectionist and I would hope they work out the kinks. Lastly I can understand why they would want to go to the generic strip center in order to test out a potential national or franchises play however half of what’s driving traffic to the original location is the ambience and atmosphere. Even with a franchise store national play they can still keep the requirements of the atmosphere and unique location. I think camp creek marketplace is the most horrible location. I also would not go behind anywhere where any boneheads was located. I don’t understand why they don’t go somewhere more city center where folks from all over metro can conveniently patronize the establishment. Lower rent, greater metro accessibility, great ambience to me seems like Chamblee.

Anonymous said...

Aviva by Kameel is number one due to the proliferation of entirely phony, paid reviews that over took yelp around 6-8 years ago and never ceased. I personally reported two or three of them to yelp authorities and they did take down those reviews. How could I tell? When I see people from *around the country* that have a total of like one or two reviews posting the exact same word-for-word gushing review of Aviva by Kameel.

Their number one ranking is entirely fraudulent. There are many restaurants, particularly certain ethnic restaurants that have tons of these short gushing reviews from people that don't live in Atlanta. And they're bogus.

~mindspringyahoo

Anonymous said...

A snide comment about African Americans. Pass the crayons and color me shocked as well.

Anonymous said...

"A snide comment about African Americans. Pass the crayons and color me shocked as well."

Bless your heart, you believe Kandi possesses that Black Girl Magic like Kasim 2.0 has? No one listens to or cares about the tripe you dish out anymore! Move along chile!

Anonymous said...

Something needs to be done about all the racist comments on here.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous 2:18 pm

From your post, I'm thinking you're a colored shade of Pepe green.

Agree with anonymous 9:10 am. It's getting worse with these type of comments.

Anonymous said...

Agree with anonymous 9:56 am. Even when we Keep Atlanta Black we gets haters. It's getting worse with these type of comments since our Obama God is gone.

SMH all I care about is how good the fried chicken is and do they allow me to eat without bad service and attitude!

Indi said...

@ 9:10 AM

Supposedly the comments are reviewed before they're posted but there's no way that's true.

Anonymous said...

‘Racist” is Realist...get with it, and stop making excuses!

Anonymous said...

By legal definition, an African-American is a person born in Africa that immigrated legally to the United States. Food for thought for the brains malnourished from the truth.

Anonymous said...

Agree with others that the racist comments are taking over this blog.

Anonymous said...

Racism is the ugly underside that impacts so much of our divided nation and "The city too busy (segregating) to hate" is certainly not immune.

Anonymous said...

Yet their still OPEN, KEEP your negative & clearly racial comments to yourself!! Work on not being an Ass then posting and HATING on others success(clearly no life)!!! Conratulations is due for the Tucker's ������������������������������������

Too Funny said...

Not racism. It's called Pattern Recognition. But the entitled can't accept that.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! The ad nauseam use of the word RACIST just means Trump is re-elected in 2020.

Anonymous said...

The B on B brutal crime at CCMP is rampant. Focus on cleaning up your own community:

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/victims-file-lawsuit-against-crime-ridden-shopping-center-following-attack/BR6emzwI8mSmZnWnKCHyXO/

Unknown said...

I visited OLG and it was nothing but great place to dine in. Everyone there makes you feel so welcome. Todd and Kandi walks around and makes you feel like you know them on a personal level. Food was great too.

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