Friday, July 12, 2019

Bits & Bites

Charming Charlie announced late Thursday that it plans to close all 261 of its stores after its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the past two years.  Entrepreneur  Charlie Chanaratsopon started the women's fashion and accessories business in 2004.  The Houston, Texas-based retailer operates eleven stores in Georgia including outposts at Cumberland Mall near Smyrna, Ashley Park in Newnan, Mall of Georgia in Buford, The Forum on Peachtree Parkway in Peachtree Corners, The Shoppes at River Crossing in Macon, The Avenue Webb Gin in Snellville, The Avenue Forsyth in Cumming, Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville, Oglethorpe Mall in Savannah, Augusta Mall in Augusta and Woodstock Square in Woodstock.  The Charming Charlie at Cumberland Mall was used in the filing of the hit 2018 comedy A Bad Moms Christmas.   Charming Charlie does not plan to offer severance to its employees, but seeks court approval to offer a one-time bonus to help close its locations. "The Store Bonuses are purposed to mitigate flight risk by incentivizing and rewarding store employees for staying with the Debtors through the Store Closing process," the company said in its filing.
A new restaurant called Tasty Crab House is coming soon to Brookwood Square in Austell.  The new restaurant will be about 4,200 square feet and will occupy about half of suite 801 in the LA Fitness, Bargain Hunt and Tuesday Morning anchored center.  About $200,000 will be spent renovating the space for use as the seafood restaurant.  The Cajun-style seafood restaurant is based in Charleston and like Atlanta-based The Juicy Crab, is expanding heavily with a total of eleven locations coming soon, including a second Georgia outpost on Watson Boulevard in Warner Robins.

A new pizza restaurant called Pizza Legion is coming soon to 745 Chastain Road in Kennesaw.  The new pizzeria will occupy the 1,600 square foot space previously occupied by Firehouse Subs.  Serial pizza restaurateur David J. Desantis is opening the restaurant.  The restaurant's opening in the Commons at Chastain will bring pizza back to the center where Uncle Maddio's Pizza previously closed.

Vegetarian restaurant VeGreen will soon open its second location.  The new outpost, planned for the food court at Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw, will occupy a 635 square foot space with an estimated $120,000 being spent to renovate the restaurant.  The original location opened in late 2016 in Reynolds Crossing, a Kroger anchored shopping center near the intersection of Steve Reynolds Boulevard and Old Norcross Road in Duluth.  The restaurant describes itself as a "Casual, contemporary eatery plating vegetarian & vegan versions of Pan-Asian specialties."  The new Kennesaw location is expected to open as of September 1.

Boston Market Monday closed 10% of its 454 nationwide locations including one in Georgia.   The Georgia location that closed was located at 4754 Redan Road in Stone Mountain. A location on Sandy Plains Road in East Cobb closed this past January, and this past Tuesday reopened as a Chipotle.  Boston Market, once owned by McDonald's, has since 2007 been owned by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners.  The Golden, Colorado-based chain continues to operate a number of Atlanta area locations including outposts on Stone Mountain Highway in Stone Mountain, Powers Ferry Road near SunTrust Park, Briarcliff Road near Toco Hills, Roswell Road in Sandy Springs and Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, among others.

The aforementioned Chipotle is the first in metro Atlanta to feature a Chipotlane, a drive-thru pickup lane, so patrons can retrieve their digital orders without leaving their cars.  The Newport Beach-based quick-serve burrito joint inherited the drive-thru window from Boston Market and put it to use to test the new efficiency offering.  Another new Chipotle will open Tuesday August, 13 at 1080 Peachtree Street in Midtown.  The new restaurant will join Panera in the street level retail at 1010 Midtown.  The two openings will bring the total number of Chipotle restaurants in Georgia to 53.

A new Xfinity store is coming soon to Sandy Springs Plaza on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.  The new location will occupy a roughly 4,200 square foot space between Corepower Yoga and Fox's.  Xfinity, a Comcast product, operates a number of locations around metro Atlanta including outposts in Buckhead, Midtown, Alpharetta, Marietta and at The Battery Atlanta adjacent to SunTrust Park.

A new Outback Steakhouse is coming soon to an outparcel of Academy Sports in Columbus.  The roughly 6,000 square foot restaurant will be located at 6700 Whittlesey Boulevard and will sport the Tampa-based chain's latest restaurant design and branding.

Performance professional clothing company Ministry of Supply has closed its short-lived boutique in Phipps Plaza.  The store, which was on the first floor across from Starbucks, opened late last year and was in a sense a relocation from The Shops Around Lenox where the company had previously operated.  

In addition to the recently opened Total Wine & More and  Hobby Lobby, and the upcoming Five Below and Joella's Hot Chicken at Akers Mill,  Carter's and Oshkosh B'Gosh and Phenix Salons will soon join the center.  Carter's and Oshkosh will occupy a roughly 5,000 square foot space adjacent to Five Below, while Phenix Salons will occupy a roughly 6,300 square foot space behind the children's  clothing retailers.  Phenix, Carter's, Oshkosh, Five Below and Total Wine all occupy space previously home to former sporting goods retailer Sports Authority.  

Locally based Four Fat Cows last week quietly opened its fourth overall Atlanta area location on Jett Ferry Road in Dunwoody Village.  The ice cream shop, located in a 1,160 square foot space in the Williamsburg at Dunwoody shopping center, is situated behind Chick-fil-A.  Most recently the space was home to Christophe's To Go, a prepared meal business but Carvel also occupied the suite previously.  Four Fat Cows currently operates shops in Athens, Alpharetta and in the Marietta Square Market in Marietta.  

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who are the 4 fat cows in Dunwoody? Terry Nall, Nancy Jester, Karen Handel, and ???

Anonymous said...

Fast Fashion needs to DIE ... IMMEDIATELY! When are these retailers going to realize that this CRAP it is NOT selling? Charming Charlie should have called it quits after it's 1st bankruptcy.

Anonymous said...

karen handel is big enough to be 2 fat cows. Just sayin.

Anonymous said...

spoken like a true “I’d like to talk to your manager” type of person. C’mon, be more inclusive. No need to fat shame.

Anonymous said...

Sad about Charming Charlie’s. If the stores were smaller, and not a National brand, they’d be okay. Store always reminded me of boutique stores in beach towns. Stuff they sold, guaranteed is carried somewhere along 30a in FL.

Anonymous said...

Wow, people. Those comments are completely unnecessary and totally inappropriate.

Alex said...

How could you leave out Stacy Abrams as the fourth Fat Cow? She's bigger than the other 3 combined. So fat she sucks food through that huge gap between her front teeth.

Anonymous said...

THE FORUM IS IN PEACHTREE CORNERS NOT NORCROSS!!!

Anonymous said...

I see that my Stacey Abrams Fat Cow comment got blocked...lol

Anonymous said...

Four Fat Cows will add to obesity epidemic
July 15, 2019 at 1:21 PM
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

What difference does it make? Fat Cow Farts are the Global Warming Epidemic that will rapidly destroy our planet Earth in under 12 years!

Atlantan99 said...

All: ToNeTo Atlanta is not meant to be a political forum. Please respect the site and understand that comments are a privilege, not a right. I kindly ask all readers to refrain from making such comments on any post on this site or I may have to limit comments are eliminate them altogether.

Thank you all for your continued feedback, tips and readership.

Eli

Steve Barton said...

I got some clueless, bad service during my first visit to Four Fat Cows in Dwood. Ice cream was good, even if way late. I am sure it will be better next time.

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