Tuesday, July 6, 2021

[UPDATE] Agency Socialthèque Has Closed at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead

Agency Socialthèque at Phipps Plaza has closed.  The restaurant, located along Peachtree Road between Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom, reportedly closed for good as of June 24.   Agency, originally opened as Public Kitchen, featured a chic mid-century modern interior, but was never able to garner a consistent following despite multiple pivots and reconcepts.  The roughly 6,000 square foot restaurant also featured an expansive patio.  

Savannah's Daniel Reed Hospitality, helmed by Managing Partner Jamie Durrence, hoped to recreate the success of the group's Savannah Public Kitchen in Buckhead, but the concept struggled out of the gate after its delayed February 2018 debut.  Durrence, Georgia Restaurant Association's 2016 Restaurateur of The Year, eventually "collaborated" with Dr. Paul Judge, fiancé of RHOA's Tanya Sam, and Ryan Glover, co-founder and chairman of Greenwood, a soon-to-launch mobile banking platform targeting "unbanked" Black and Latinx people and business owners.  Despite the work of Judge and Glover to market the space as more of a lounge, the concept was never able to emerge from the shadow of former occupant Twist.   

Marketing aside, Phipps Plaza has seen a significant decrease in occupancy (and foot traffic) while the greater Buckhead area has witnessed an uptick in crime and the continued nuisance of the so-called "water boyz" that has made driving around Phipps, Lenox Square and other destinations in Buckhead challenging, and at times, dangerous.  

Adjacent to Agency, local baker Alon Balshan is making progress towards his planned opening of a new bakery, café & market at Phipps Plaza in the remaining portion of the former Twist space.  ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported on Balshan's planned Buckhead opening in 2019. After a significant COVID-caused delay, it is finally making significant visible progress.  

Also at Phipps, the former Genuine Pizza seems to have been gobbled up by a Valentino expansion while the former Tavern at Phipps remains empty. Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse, which had been closed since last July, plans to reopen later this fall after completing a $250,000 renovation.

Daniel Reed Hospitality continues to operate several restaurants in Historic Downtown Savannah including Local 11ten, The Public Kitchen and Bar, Artillery Bar, and their most recent opening, Franklin's, a brunch eatery and café, which debuted this past January.    

What would you like to see open in the former Agency Socialthèque space?  Are you excited for the opening of Alon's and reopening of Davio's?  When was the last time you visited Phipps Plaza?

Please share your thoughts below.  

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I haven't been to Phipps since Feb 2020. Even without the Pandemic, Phipps doesn't have a lot of stores that interest me anymore. I miss the Phipps of 15 years ago. Now Build a Bear and Earl of Sandwich are probably the only reasons I would go. I wouldn't mind trying Davio's when it reopens. Even though I work in Buckhead I feel like all the car breakins are a definite reason to think twice about going there. Very sad!!

Ham said...

Yes, sadly Phipps just doesn't have the same atmosphere it once did. Whether it is things like crime, loss of preferred merchants, Lego Land, closing of The Tavern, closing of the Food Court, etc they are in trouble. The challenge they face seems to be the need to bring in non-traditional tenants to fill empty stores. However, many of these tenants just don't seem to mesh well with the image that Phipps has traditionally had. This was always the sophisticated laid back place to shop, dine or see a movie, but now not so much. Sadly they will probably become just another run of the mill mall and eventually close when Simons does another Lenox expansion.

Anonymous said...

Lego Land should have been placed at Atlantic Station. To have a family driven destination combined with stores that don't really have family friendly prices and a lack of dining options gives Phipps a strange mix. Belk was also a disaster as a tenant as the store is more like Kohl's than Nordstorm or Saks.

All malls are suffering and the crime in the area isn't helping. I have no idea if it will survive without a different strategy. Right now it appears to be ailing.

Anonymous said...

you didnt mention Alon’s, wasn’t that to open in the pizza space?

Tres said...

The Belk at Phipps was actually treated as a more upscale "flagship" store. It actually carried a good many higher-end (if not necessarily luxury) brands, essentially carrying over the same type of merchandise Parisian carried before Belk acquired the brand.

The problem with Belk in Georgia is that people here perceive it as a Kohl's-like store because historically those have been the kind of stores Belk runs around here for the most part. However go to a Belk at one of the better malls in the Carolinas (Haywood in Greenville, SouthPark in Charlotte, Crabtree Valley in Raleigh, etc.) and these are actually much nicer stores. Though, to be fair, I do wish that Belk kept the Parisian name and continued operating it as their "high end" division. Remember that Parisian was like "The Nordstrom of the South" before Nordstrom came to the South.

All that said, I hope the new additions coming to the spot where Parisian/Belk was, like the hotel and food hall, bring about some positive change. But they really need to fill those spots at the front of the restaurant with some viable restaurants, especially on the half heading towards Nordstrom. I still can't believe that the Tavern closed completely. I hope someone can come in and reopen it.

Anonymous said...

While many restaurant names give no indication that they're a restaurant (McDonalds!), Agency Socialtheque would never pop into my head as a restaurant. When I rad the headline, my question to myself was "what is Agency Socialtheque?" While so much goes into the success or failure of a restaurant, that name couldn't have helped!

Anonymous said...

Whatever happened with The Tavern? I always liked it.
Also are any of the food hall concepts ever successful? It seems like its always a last gasp effort to keep food in places where restaurants fails and turnover....

Anonymous said...

The demographic change in the area is appalling. Regardless of skin color, the people loitering and riding scooters around this area are on the lowest rung of class. They have not a care in the world about their fellow human beings. Simon HAS to get their act together and bring back the environments that Phipps and Lenox used to provide before they were taken over by these disgusting, loud, vulgar youngsters that have nothing better to do. Rather than separate from the city, Buckhead would do better to petition MARTA to close the Lenox station. I see they often place police on the corners to run off the water boyz. Trash. I have no idea how covid turned this entire area into a cesspool but as a residential owner in the area, I'm fed up.

Anonymous said...

The Shops at Buckhead Village took away some of the pizazz of Phipps. Hermes and other high-end stores there. Phipps needs to up their game, bring in Goyard, Patek Philippe, Kiton, Brioni, Chanel boutique, high-end shops you can't find anywhere else otherwise it will die a slow death.

Anonymous said...

These comments are funny. I went to Belk when it was open and they had the same buy 1 get 2 free Izod and Haggar pant sale as every other store. High end it was not.

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