[EXCLUSIVE] Gallery Cafe Closing in Buckhead, Buff City Aims to Replace Them and "Clean Up"

Gallery Cafe will be closing December 31 at Tuxedo Festival in Buckhead.  The owners of the popular Chastain Park area eatery reportedly decided not to renew their lease given the uncertainly of the world and the challenges facing the restaurant industry.  The lunch eatery has been a Chastain Park staple for more than two decades, having first opened in 1998.  

Tuxedo Festival - at the corner of Piedmont and Roswell Roads - has in recent years welcomed several "trendier" businesses to its center including Solcioty Fitness and Stretch Society as well as Duck Donuts and Chopt.  At the same time, the center has lost its two largest tenants in Savi Provisions and FLIP Burger boutique.  Despite the closures, parking in the center remains a challenge at peak times, so the difficulty has been attracting new businesses that need less parking or tend to need it at off-peak times.  

Replacing Gallery Cafe is Buff City Soap, a growing soap and cosmetics franchise that recently entered the metro Atlanta market.  The Memphis-based business has existing Atlanta area locations in Roswell, Peachtree Corners, and Fort Oglethorpe near Chattanooga, and will early next year open in the roughly 2,100 square foot Gallery Cafe space.  

ToNeTo Atlanta has visited the Roswell location several times and even made our very own soap!  Entrepreneur Brad Kellum opened the first Buff City in 2013.   In some ways Buff City is like Lush, a UK-based soap and cosmetics company, but Buff City is more localized in their approach and their offerings.  Each location is able to create and offer their own "signature bar," and also offer soap-making classes.  That said, Kellum does has have lofty growth aspirations with his hope that Buff City will one day be "the Starbucks of soap."  

Have you ever tried Buff City Soap?  Where would you like to see Buff City Soap open next?  Are you a bar or liquid soap person?

Please share your thoughts below.