Friday, June 26, 2020

[BITS & BITES] Special COVID-19 Edition

A new breakfast spot called Hot Betty's Breakfast Bar soft opened earlier this week on Main Street in downtown Tucker.  The new independently owned eatery replaced The Freakin Incan, which closed this past March.  Hot Betty's is open for breakfast and brunch and features not only classics like gourmet biscuits and omelettes, but also a rotating specials menu, vegan and gluten-free options, and hand-crafted cocktails, wine and beer. 

The Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams  store at Avalon in Alpharetta is closing.  The designer furniture store, which opened as part of the mixed-use project's first phase, opened in 2014 and is slated to close in the coming weeks.  The store is currently liquidating all in-stock merchandise at savings of 40 to 60% off.  The following discounts are applicable to the identified product categories. 

40% off: Sofas, Sectionals, Beds, Case goods & Occasional chairs

50% off: Pillows, Accessories, Lighting, Rugs, Bedding and Chairs to be sold as a set  

60% off: Used Rugs and Drapery panels.

The original Atlanta area Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams store at the corner of East Paces Ferry and Peachtree Roads in Buckhead will remain open.  

The Cook's Warehouse is closing its Chamblee/Brookhaven store in Peachtree Station to focus on its Ansley Mall and eCommerce business.  Mary Moore, owner of The Cook's Warehouse, made the announcement to customers in an email Thursday.  

"Economic pressures require difficult decisions and this time in our company’s history is no different. To maintain our dedicated team and strong brand developed throughout the years we are once again changing our model. As painful as it is for all of us, we will be closing our Peachtree Station location and continuing forward with our Ansley Mall location and online business while we look for opportunities to again grow our footprint."  

The Chamblee location opened in 2017 and was meant to replace the Brookhaven location which closed.  Moore previously closed The Cook's Warehouse locations in Decatur (2017) and East Cobb (2018). 

C. Ellet's and Gio's Chicken Siciliana at The Battery Atlanta have both closed, with sources telling ToNeTo Atlanta that the former could reopen as a new concept from the Hopkins, while the latter is gone for good.  Punch Bowl Social, another Battery tenant, has apparently "made the COVID-19 cut," with the company confirming earlier this month they were permanently closing units in Stapleton, CO and Schaumburg, IL due to an unwillingness on the part of those landlords to renegotiate lease terms, something it seems the company was able to successfully do with Braves Development Company in Atlanta.  

South Buckhead restaurant Saltyard has for now been rechristened "Saltyard by OSHA."  The restaurant, which hit the market last year, seemingly changed hands in late March.  The new owners reportedly will eventually rename the restaurant OSHA Thai & Sushi Factory, but have adopted the joint name and hybrid menu for the time being, featuring new offerings like Terityaki Chicken & Rice,  Butter Shrimp Tempura and Clay Pot Ramen along with Saltyard items like Steak Frites and Seared Filet of Salmon.  

GNC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this week and is closing some 888 stores with plans that could include eventually closing as many as 1,200 stores. The 85 year-old retailer of vitamins and dietary supplements has struggled for years to remain relevant and competitive but still has 5,800 stores overall.    In metro Atlanta, closing sales are due to begin this weekend at GNC stores in Canton, Covington, Decatur, Savannah, two in Kennesaw and one in Fountain Oaks shopping center on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.  Liquidation sales are slated to run through September 20 or until in-stock merchandise is sold out.
Local fitness business SculptHouse has closed its studios in Sandy Springs and Nashville, as well as its pop-up in Charlotte.  The Atlanta-based brand, started by Katherine Mason in 2017, will continue to operate studios in Buckhead and Dallas as well as their online retail store.  

Over in Brookhaven, Skull Shine Studios was to have relocated from Dresden Drive to Clairmont Road, but has instead had to close for good.   Co-owners Jennifer Smith and Jenny Holding had hoped to open in Skyland Shopping Center in January, but pushed the opening to March 16.  Unfortunately, the timing could not have been worse as the owners had to make the gut-wrenching decision to simply never open.  The business partners had first operated {the skeleton}, a pop-up of sorts, on Dresden Drive as of this past October.  There are currently no plans to open elsewhere, with the partners refunding pre-paid memberships and selling fixtures and equipment. 

Microsoft announced Friday that it plans to permanently close nearly all of its retail stores, as it focuses its efforts instead on its online sales efforts.  In Atlanta, the company operates two stores, one at Lenox Square in Buckhead, the other at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody. The stores, which by all accounts were an imitation of Apple's incredibly successful retail outlets, never lived up to expectations and their closure should come as little surprise to retail observers.  

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Trump Pandemic and the Trump Great Depression rage on with no end in sight. If only Trump hadn't lied to Americans about the virus, calling it a flu and a hoax after being told by Biden and 100 advisors in January that the virus was serious and that 500,000 people could die and to do something. Instead Trump went golfing and on his hate rallies

Anonymous said...

Interesting that MG+BW would close Avalon - a location that is much less susceptible to looting and vandalism than their Buckhead location. Maybe the increasingly Indian-Asian population of North Fulton didn't love the MG+BW style.

Cody Cargle said...

GNC and Microsoft store doesn’t surprise me at all, who in the hell shops at either one of them anymore, sorry for the continual job losses but otherwise seriously? 😳😅

S. Gresham said...

Word is the blue Willow social Circle is closed and is up for sale

Cody Cargle said...

Anonymous said on June 26, 2020 at 11:13 Am Listen you motherfucking dumbass this pandemic has absolutely nothing to do with Trump, stop fucking blame Trump for everything he has done, that’s the problem now, those polls coming out everyday is from idiots like you, Joe Biden is fucking retard who doesn’t know what the fuck he is doing, him, Dr. Anthony Fauci, George Soros, Bill Gates, and Nancy Pelosi are all to blame for this pandemic because they are not in cohoots with China, and multiple foreign countries, plus Trump hasn’t went golfing recently when in the hell he has time for that shit, he has been working his ass off, what the fuck did Obama do for the past 8 years not to be racist not a damn thing except belittle every human being including Black people, his wife Michelle forcing people to eat healthy in school when kids don’t know what’s really better for them, all those Coke zeros for an example have nothing but artificial shit that is unhealthy for you, then he forced all Americans to join his fucked up healthcare that hasn’t been the same, since lazy ass Congress won’t do shit to get rid of it, and apologize to Japan for what we did to them in the 1940’s wtf? 😑 And oh wow with the help of the Navy Osama Bin Laden was put out of his misery and he cared about his family, but otherwise he is pos who ruined the economy to the point of another Great Depression, so don’t talk this shit and expect people to vote for Joe Biden necessarily, because people have proof what Biden did wrong too, and he isn’t doing any rallies either, so what makes you think he could do better and turn around the country. 😏 And finally if you are so concerned why hasn’t the Mayor of Atlanta stopped this idiots from destroying the city, and Governor Brian Kemp might be a dumbass himself, but atleast he isn’t as stupid as the mayor or Joe Biden. 🤣

Anonymous said...

yeah because looting happens 24/7, ya racist.

stumblebee said...

I would be more inclined to go to the battery if parking weren't so terrible.

Anonymous said...

No, Trump did everything possible to make the Trump Pandemic worse. He fired CDC staff and scientists in China that could have isolated the virus there because I guess Trump wants to kill everyone. He stopped epidemic prevention relief in 39 countries including China because I guess he wants to kill us all. He blew off Obama's transition team when they left him a playbook on how to handle a pandemic because I guess it'll be a cold day in hell when Trump takes advice from a black guy.

And 100 advisors and Biden and the CDC told Trump in January that the virus was serious and that 500,000 Americans could die. Instead Trump lied to Americans and called it a hoax and the flu because he cared more about the stock market than saving American lives. Thousands have died and thousands more will die because of Trump's criminal negligence. In doing so, Trump has sunk way lower than Hitler and Bin Laden

Anonymous said...

All I can say is that the fake news and lies and racism and sexism from Trump and FOX Noise really has destroyed this country and our democracy and dumbed down this country to an incredible degree where the cult of Trump racist deplorables wouldn't care if Trump started murdering people on 5th Ave as long as Trump was still being a racist just like them

Anonymous said...

Come on Eli. This used to be a bastion of political free banter and insults for liking chain restaurants. Let's keep it that way.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...