Monday, July 29, 2019

Bits & Bites

Abercrombie & Fitch is reviving their defunct lingerie brand Gilly Hicks.  The brand, previously marketed as Abercrombie's "cheeky cousin," was closely tied to faux beginnings in Sydney, Australia.  There were about two dozen stand-alone Gilly Hicks stores worldwide [none in Georgia] at the time of their closure in 2015.  This time around, the company is pairing Gilly Hicks with established and thriving sibling brand Hollister Co. and giving it a California theme to match its sibling store.  The company recently opened four pop-up shops at Tysons Corner Center in Tysons, Virginia; at Dolphin Mall in Miami; at Los Cerritos Center in Cerritos, California; and at Baybrook Mall in Friendswood, Texas. All are expected to be open for about 12 months, according to the company. These stores join two existing Gilly Hicks shops at Ala Moana Center in Honolulu and Roosevelt Field mall in East Garden City, New York.  An upcoming Hollister on the first floor of Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody advertises that it will have a Gilly Hicks store too, perhaps as a "shop in shop."  The new Perimeter Mall outpost is expected to open in the coming weeks.
Akira, a women's clothing and accessories boutique from Chicago, will open in the recently shuttered Sur La Table at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody.  The privately owned boutique got its start in Chicago's trendy Wicker Park neighborhood in 2002 and his expanded to 27 retail stores as well as a growing eCommerce business.   Akira features assorted private label merchandise as well as clothing and accessories from brands such as Adidas and Champion for women from petite to plus size.  The new Akira at Perimeter Mall, on the second floor, adjacent to Macy's, will be the chain's first location in Georgia and is expected to open later this year.   

Womens clothing retailer Talbots is also opening a new store at Perimeter Mall. The new Talbots is opening in place of where Apple previously vacated (they opened in a larger space in late 2016) on the mall's second floor.  The retailer previously closed a store in Park Place, a shopping center across the street from Perimeter Mall.  This will be the seventh Atlanta area store for the Hingham, Massachuttes based retailer.  Existing Atlanta area Talbots stores include those at Phipps Plaza and Peachtree Battle in Buckhead, Vinings Jubilee in Vinings, The Avenue East Cobb in East Cobb, The Forum on Peachtree Parkway in Peachtree Corners and North Point Village in Alpharetta.  The company also operates several "Outlet" stores in metro Atlanta but closed its "Clearance" store near Gwinnett Place Mall several years ago.

The first Atlanta area location of San Francisco-based Indian fast casual franchise Curry Up Now is expected to open Tuesday July 30 at North Decatur Square near Decatur.  The Decatur area location is the first of at least three metro Atlanta locations that local franchisee Hemant Suri has planned over the next couple of years.  In North Decatur Square, Curry Up Now joins anchor Whole Foods 365 as well as existing eateries such as Tin Drum Asian Kitchen, Gusto and Bad Daddy's Burger Bar.  Additional Atlanta area locations of Curry Up Now are slated to open at Madison Yards in Reynoldstown and at The Interlock in West Midtown. 

Aziza and Falafel Nation opened July 25 at Westside Provisions District.  The new "modern Israeli" restaurant and casual falafel joint occupy space previously home to both Preserving Place and retailer Steven Alan.  Tal Postelnik Baum, who owns Italian eatery Bellina Alimentari in Ponce City Market, is behind the pair of new restaurants that promise to provide the Westside with foods and preparations not currently found in the area.

QuikTrip has closed its existing gas station and convenience store on Lawrenceville Highway near North DeKalb Mall to complete a "scrape & rebuild."  The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based convenience store and fuel retailer has been completing other similar projects in and around metro Atlanta over the past couple of years.  When the North DeKalb Mall area location reopens it will be a "Gen 3 S" with the "S" reportedly referring to a slightly smaller version of the company's updated "Gen 3" format.  The new convenience store will still be larger than the former building with sources telling ToNeTo Atlanta that the fuel center will actually feature two fewer pumps: 20 rather than 22.  If all goes well, the new (and improved) QuikTrip will reopen in mid-December.

Mission-style burrito joint Bell Street Burritos is now open at 4053 Lawrenceville Highway in Tucker.  The new restaurant "soft opened" last week and is now the third location that founder and owner Matt Hinton operates.  Hinton previously announced that his original location in Sweet Auburn's Curb Market in Downtown Atlanta would close when Tucker opened.  The company continues to operates a pair of other locations, one on Peachtree Street in Brookwood Hills/South Buckhead, the other at The Stoveworks off Krog Street in Inman Park, along The BeltLine's Eastside Trail.

A new location of Thumbs Up Diner is coming soon to 2615 East West Connector in Austell.  The locally owned eatery got its start in Decatur in 1984 and began franchising in 2011.  The Austell location is being opened by Caprice "Caps" Casey and should be open in a few weeks.  The Austell locations joins existing other Thumbs Up Diner outposts on Marietta Street in West Midtown,  Edgewood Avenue, Douglasville, East Point and Roswell.

Rolled ice cream eatery Sweet Charlie's will soon see the opening of four new locations in Georgia.  Already open in Buckhead, Augusta and McDonough, new outposts are coming soon to Roswell, Fayetteville, Kathleen and Savannah.  The Roswell location, situated in a 1,200 square foot corner space in the Kroger-anchored Mansell Village, looks close to opening, but also has a "STOP WORK ORDER" from June taped to the front door. 

Princi Italia closed permanently this past weekend after about four years in business. The restaurant was located in the street level retail at the 77 12th high-rise apartment building at the corner of Crescent Avenue and 12th Street.  The concept was from Dallas, Texas-based Restaurant Works, Inc., operators of sibling concept CrĂș Food & Wine Bar in both Avalon in Alpharetta and The Battery Atlanta at SunTrust Park.  Princi Italia's closure is just the latest in a string of restaurant failures in Midtown which in the immediate vicinity includes Max's Wine Dive, BurgerFi, Ribalta and Piola.

Chicken Salad Chick will open their first location in Henry County Wednesday, August 7.  The growing eatery, based in nearby Auburn, Alabama, will open a nearly 2,600 square foot restaurant in the Eagles Landing area of Stockbridge at the new Eagles Landing Exchange on Eagles Landing Parkway.  With locations in Peachtree City, Newnan, Carrollton, McDonough, Buckhead, Vinings, Sandy Plains, Kennesaw, Marietta, Roswell and Cumming, Chicken Salad Chick continues to rapidly expand throughout the greater Atlanta-area. Chicken Salad Chick’s founder, Stacy Brown, will attend the grand opening in Stockbridge to thank the employees of the restaurant and welcome local fans to the new restaurant.  The first guest of the new Stockbridge location will receive one free large Quick Chick every week. The next 99 guests that come after the first visitor will receive one free large Quick Chick every month. In the coming weeks, Brown will return to Georgia to open what she is calling the "Founder's Restaurant," a Chicken Salad Chick unlike any other, slated to open in early September in Rome.

Piece of Cake is opening a new location in south Buckhead at Brookwood Village across from Piedmont Hospital between Chick-fil-A and Gusto.  The approximately 2,200 square foot space that the locally owned bakeshop will occupy was most recently home to elements massage.  This will be the 11th Atlanta area location for the cupcake shop and bakery.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shirley A. "Goofball" Gouffon fails again! Based on their quality of service, I think Bulla will be next. Great job attracting successful retail, Shirley. You really seem to know what you're doing when it comes to letting your tenants fail! Disgrace of a landlord and a scourge on Midtown.

Anonymous said...

Dear Chicken Salad Chick,

You are literally everywhere but Midtown... or North Druid Hills... or Brookhaven... or Chamblee... Always places known as NEAR ME! :-)

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