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2022...a year many were so eager for is the year many would surely like to forget. 2022 has brought many changes - good, bad and ugly - and while we, too, are looking forward to 2023, we wanted to remind our readers of some of the more compelling stories we chronicled over the past year. Below, find a sampling of both popular stories from ToNeTo Atlanta and others that seem to have flown under the radar.
Alo Yoga, a Los Angeles-based athletic apparel company, plans to enter the Atlanta market with a store in Buckhead. The new store, which permits filed with the City of Atlanta indicate will be about 5,000 square feet, will open on the first floor of Lenox Square. The company plans to spend an estimated $1.1 million to renovate the space to suit its needs according to the permit.
Henri's Bakery officially opened its fifth overall bakery cafe December 22 in Brookhaven. The new shop, located at 2163 Johnson Ferry Road, was previously Corner Pizza and before that a Domino's Pizza franchise. Henri's Brookhaven joins existing outposts in Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Marietta and Upper Westside.
We have received several questions about the former Major League on Northlake Parkway in Tucker. The building, which before Major League was built as an Olive Garden, is currently undergoing renovations to become Katch Kitchen & Cocktails, a local establishment.
In April, ToNeTo Atlanta was first to report on the planned expansion of Shipley Do-Nuts in metro Atlanta. At the time the chain had secured development deals with two franchisees with plans to bring as many as 30 units to the greater metro Atlanta area in the coming years. The first of the planned locations was to open "Q4" in Duluth.
A new restaurant called "1255 Social" plans to open in East Cobb this coming spring. The new restaurant, which recently launched its website, will open in the former Red Sky Tapas which closed this past September after ownership received "an offer they couldn't refuse." 1255 is opening in Market Plaza shopping center at 1255 Johnson Ferry Road which is where the restaurant gets its name.
While Nobu, the marquee name that most were looking forward to seeing open at Phipps Plaza has now opened, several other shops and restaurants are opening soon at the posh Buckhead mall, as well as at neighboring Lenox Square. Newly updated signage as well as recently filed permits and real estate sources, indicate that several additional luxury retailers will either open new stores in Phipps Plaza or relocate existing area stores to the mall in the coming months.
Your Pie, an Atlanta-based pizza franchise quietly closed its location at Embry Village near Tucker. The restaurant, which opened in 2018, reportedly closed without notice more than a month ago. The 2,854 square foot space is currently being marketed for lease by center owner Kimco Properties.
Gary Lin is at it again! Fresh off the opening of Urban Hai in Midtown, Lin has inked a deal to bring WOK Provisions to Dunwoody. The new restaurant will open in the Walmart-anchored Perimeter Village shopping center (4709 Ashford Dunwoody Road) in a roughly 1,800 square foot space next to Poke Bar, which was most recently home to Pita Mediterranean Street Food.
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| WOK Provisions in Duluth |
The longstanding Guitar Center located on the Northeast Expressway will soon relocate. According to a newly updated site plan for Brighten Park (2480 Briarcliff Road), Guitar Center has leased a roughly 18,300 square foot anchor space most recently home to Tuesday Morning.
The owner of a Sandy Springs hookah bar has closed on the purchase of an existing building where he plans to open a new "upscale cigar bar." Valid Khamisi, owner of Moustache Hoookah Bar (7855 Roswell Road), purchased the freestanding building at 8549 Roswell Road where The Rusty Nail operated for more than four decades before its closure this past August. (The Buford Highway location remains open.)
Patagonia opened its newest Atlanta area store Saturday December 17 at The Krog District. The new store marks the second in Atlanta for the Ventura, California-based chain. The brand's Buckhead Village store has been a neighborhood mainstay at the corner of East Andrews Drive and Cains Hill Place for more than two decades. Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard made headlines in September when he announced plans to donate the entire company to fight climate change.
After less than a year in business, The Captain's Boil has shuttered its two Atlanta units and seemingly abandoned plans for another two locations that were under construction. Headquartered in Canada, The Captain's Boil made waves in metro Atlanta when it announced in October 2021 that its US expansion would start in Atlanta. (Atlanta-based private equity firm NRD Capital owns a minority interest in the chain.) Representatives from the company would later tell ToNeTo Atlanta that the chain planned to open at least fifteen locations in metro Atlanta.
The new year will likely bring yet another new Chipotlane to metro Atlanta. Newport Beach, California-based Chipotle Mexican Grill recently filed plans to convert an existing Arby's restaurant to a new Chipotlane equipped Chipotle.
Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar plans to open its third Atlanta area location February 1 near North Point Mall in Alpharetta. The new restaurant is located at the corner of Haynes Bridge Road and North Point Parkway and occupies a newly built, freestanding building. The first Atlanta area Lazy Dog opened in Peachtree Corners in 2019 followed by a second at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody this past January.
If you were looking forward to enjoying the Buckhead outpost of popular Middle Eastern restaurant Delbar, we have bad news: it ain't happening. First announced in August 2021, the restaurant was to have opened in the fall of 2022. While delays in construction, permitting and hiring are pretty normal these days, things were moving even slower than glacially at the would-be Buckhead site.
Lobster Banh Mi, an eatery offering Vietnamese sandwiches and coffee, plans to open its second location early next year in Brookhaven. The original Lobster Banh Mi opened at 3095 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Duluth in June 2021. The new location is situated in a roughly 1,300 square foot space next to Kathleen's Catch in Skyland Shopping Center at Buford Highway and Clairmont Road. Lobster Banh Mi marks the second new restaurant to join the revamped center following last year's opening of The Greek Pizzeria & Gyros, which just last week celebrated its first anniversary.
Chris' Pizza, a longstanding neighborhood mainstay at Toco Hills shopping center (2911 North Druid Hills Road) is closing. The restaurant, which first opened in 1983, will close as of December 23. Chris', which served pizza as well as other Greek favorites, had been for sale for several months but unable to find a buyer and with costs (both food and rent) continuing to rise, ownership made the decision to close.
With Nobu now open in Buckhead, another glitzy restaurant with several locations abroad is looking to open a new restaurant in Atlanta. Salvaje, a restaurant that got its start in Spain and features a largely Japanese menu, is planning to open just its second American location in "Uptown," the stretch of Peachtree Street between Buckhead and Midtown.
Nur Kitchen, which opened quietly in 2020 but seemed recently to be hitting its stride, abruptly announced over the weekend that it was closing. The cozy restaurant along Buford Highway, less than two miles beyond the Perimeter in Doraville, is part of a bustling shopping center called Global Forum (7130 Buford Highway).
A short-lived Dunkin' is being converted into a new Captain D's in Marietta. The new restaurant - at 725 Cobb Parkway North - is located a few blocks south of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company United property along Cobb Parkway. A franchise group opened the freestanding Dunkin' in late 2015 but closed it just a year later in late 2016.
The Righteous Room Brookhaven apparently closed Tuesday after about nine years in business. The closure, publicized in a Brookhaven area Facebook group Tuesday evening by someone affiliated with the restaurant, said in part "The Righteous Room in Brookhaven is sadly closing it's doors and everything must go TONIGHT!!." There was no reason provided for the closure but am employee at the restaurant Wednesday indicated the lease was up and ownership opted not to renew.
Off-price retailer Tuesday Morning confirmed earlier this week that it plans to close its store at Parkaire Landing in East Cobb no later than the end of the year. The roughly 10,000 square foot store opened in the Kroger-anchored shopping center October 16, 2016. The Parkaire Landing store served as a replacement for the store the retailer closed at The Fountains of Olde Towne nearby, a center that was redeveloped for a new Northside Hospital facility. Tuesday Morning's space will reportedly be taken over for an expansion by Kroger. The Dallas, Texas-based retailer closed three stores in the greater metro Atlanta area in 2020 including those on Barrett Parkway in Towne Center Prado and on Dallas Highway in Village Green shopping center, both in Marietta, as well as a third in Newnan in Newnan Pavilion, a shopping center along busy Bullsboro Drive.
Whataburger provided an update this week on its planned opening in Kennesaw slated for Monday November 28. The restaurant, located just off Chastain Road at 705 Town Park Lane NW, will open for drive-thru service only at 11am. In addition, the San Antonio, Texas-based chain with a cult-like following also revealed eight other locations it plans to open in 2023. While the list was largely the same as a list it announced in March, ToNeTo Atlanta noted multiple changes too.
Isla & Co., a new "Australian-inspired" cafe, will open their first of up to three Atlanta area locations next month in Buckhead. The new restaurant will occupy the 2,740 square foot space in Andrews Square (56 East Andrews Drive) left vacant in 2021 by the closure of beloved vegetarian-friendly eatery SAMA. Isla & Co. had originally planned to open in April, and later August, but as is so often the case in Atlanta, was forced to push its opening.
A new location of Crumbl Cookies is planned for Toco Hills Promenade. The new cookie shop will open in suite 260, a roughly 1,900 square foot space most recently home to a Jimmy Johns franchise. The first Crumbl opened in Logan, Utah in 2017, and in the years since, the chain has experienced meteoric growth with nearly 650 locations open and dozens more in development. In metro Atlanta, there are currently fifteen Crumbl franchises open including those in Alpharetta, Brookhaven, Buford, and Marietta, with at least one more coming soon to Sandy Springs.
Alon's Bakery & Market will early next year shutter its popular location at Park Place shopping center across from Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody. The Dunwoody outpost opened in 2008, then the second location for the Atlanta-based business. Founder Alon Balshan opened the original Alon's on North Highland Avenue in Morningside in 1992. The more than 11,000 square foot Dunwoody space is not yet being marketed for lease but is due to close in February 2023, according to employees at the business.
A new location of used media retailer 2nd & Charles is coming to Roswell. The new store, which will anchor Brannon Square on Alpharetta Highway, takes over the 28,500 square foot space left vacant last September following the closure of a Salvation Army thrift store. 2nd & Charles specializes in selling used media ranging from CDs and DVDs to video games, books and related collectibles.
The historic Tara Theatre (Regal Tara), one of the longest running, continuously operating movie theaters in metro Atlanta, is closing its doors forever. There was speculation in 2020 that the Atlanta art house cinema – which opened on July 10, 1968 playing the re-release of the epic "Gone With the Wind – would, as a result of the pandemic, not reopen as other theaters had.
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| Tara Theatre when it was temporarily closed in 2020 |
The Cobb County restaurant formerly known as Cherokee Cattle Co. announced Sunday that it will reopen Wednesday November 9 for dinner only. Reservations, while available, are offered exclusively via OpenTable.com. The restaurant, unlike others in the Marietta Family Restaurants portfolio, has remained closed since March 23, 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The restaurant - 2710 Canton Road - remained closed for more than year before owner Gus Tselios took to Facebook last June to announce renovations have indeed started, but "would take a little time."
Fledgling burger franchise BurgerIM may soon be completely gone from Georgia. Local restaurant broker Steve Josovitz with The Shumacher Group is marketing the BurgerIM at Toco Hills shopping center in Atlanta for sale. According to online reports, the Toco Hills restaurant is the second to last BurgerIM operating in the state. The restaurant, located at 2929 North Druid Hills Road, Suite 512, opened in May 2020, just as the pandemic was causing many businesses to shut down.
A popular bakery is planning a first of its kind fast casual restaurant in East Cobb. The Taira family, owners of King's Hawaiian, plan to open a new fast casual restaurant in an outparcel of the old Georgia Theatre Company (GTC) Cobb Place 12 Cinema complex near the intersection of Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road. The outparcel is being created by repurposing excess parking no longer needed given that the theater is being converted to a climate controlled self storage facility.
A new bb.q Chicken - Korea's Finest Fried Chicken plans to open in Decatur. The new franchise restaurant will open at 319 West Ponce de Leon Avenue where it will open in place of Pho King, which closed at the end of 2021. The roughly 2,600 square foot space originally debuted in early 2016 as an outpost of Taziki's Mediterranean Café. Seoul, South Korea-based bb.q Chicken has existing Atlanta area locations in Doraville, Duluth, Johns Creek and Suwanee.
Kiosco, a popular Marietta area restaurant serving traditional Colombian fare, took to Facebook Wednesday to announce "the dissolution of a wonderful partnership of 13 years," leading many to gather it was closing. "With love we announce the end of an era at Kiosco and the dissolution of a wonderful partnership of 13 years. The Bermudez family would like to thank you for making each day an adventure, each meal a labor of love and each connection truly memorable," the post continued.
A onetime Hardee's in Lawrenceville was recently demolished to make way for a new Chipotle. The freestanding building, located on a roughly one acre outparcel of Pleasant Hill Point (corner of Club Drive and Pleasant Hill Road) was originally constructed in 1988 as a Hardee's restaurant after which it became a Moe's Southwest Grill in the early 2000s, and more recently operated as an outpost of locally owned Don Pedro Mexican Restaurant.
After several delays, a restaurant that has looked like it could open "any day now" has finally set its final opening date. We are pleased to confirm that Whataburger will make its metro Atlanta debut Monday November 28 at 705 Town Park Lane NW in Kennesaw. The Whataburger, on which ToNeTo Atlanta exclusively reported last August, replaced a shuttered O'Charley's not far from the campus of Kennesaw State University.
A new Lidl grocery store is being proposed in Cobb County. Plans filed in September with the Cobb Zoning Office show Lidl is requesting the rezoning of 3.47 acres at the southwest corner of Canton Road and Piedmont Road for a 31,000-square-foot food market. A former Eckerd turned Rite-Aid building (2833 Canton Road) occupies about 1.4 acres of the site. The building, constructed in 1998, has been vacant since Rite Aid shuttered it in 2018.
This coming Sunday will bring something extra scary to sports fans in Atlanta: a future without Fox Bros Bar-B-Q at Mercedes Benz Stadium. The popular Atlanta-based barbecue business owned by pitmaster brothers Jonathan and Justin Fox announced Friday afternoon that this coming Sunday will be the last day of service for the restaurant that opened with the stadium in 2017.
If you've driven by the old Zesto at 2469 Piedmont Road, you may have noticed something odd: it's open! Following the restaurant's closure on September 18, new ownership and management have reopened the business as "Buckhead Burgers." Interestingly, the new restaurant features literally the same menu as Zesto, with the Zesto logo and other proprietary items covered up or otherwise renamed on the new menu.
With two Raising Cane's locations already in the works for the greater metro Atlanta area, we have now confirmed a third! Following announcements in Buford and Dacula, a third Raising Cane's is being planned for Woodstock. The new restaurant would come to a roughly one acre parcel at 9887 and 9911 Highway 92. The primary parcel was most recently home to a Velox insurance office but was built as a Mrs. Winner's Chicken & Biscuits.
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| The future Raising Cane's when it operated as a Mrs. Winner's via LoopNet |
The owners of Six Feet Under Pub & Fish House plan to "move" their popular West Midtown pub nearly six miles away to 1824 Cheshire Bridge Road. The new Six Feet Under will replace ROXX Tavern which "temporarily" closed this past December but never reopened. The roughly 4,600 foot restaurant that Dean Chronopoulos opened as ROXX in 2000 was originally built as a McDonald's. The Golden Arches moved to their current home at 2350 Cheshire Bridge Road in 1999.
Stop us if you've heard this before: a restaurant expected to open months ago had its debut delayed due to permit challenges in City of Atlanta. Original ChopShop, a new to market fast casual eatery, hopes to finally open its first Atlanta area outpost Wednesday November 9 at Peachtree Square (2274 Peachtree Road) in south Buckhead.
Nuts ‘n Berries Healthy Market in Decatur has been listed for sale. The grocery store and market, which opened June 1, 2020, occupies a nearly 6,000 square foot space in North Decatur Plaza (2118 North Decatur Road), a shopping center at the corner of North Decatur and Clairmont Roads, not far from Emory University. Nuts 'n Berries replaced Rainbow Natural Foods, a similar store that closed in early 2019 after more than four decades in business.
The game will soon be up at Round1 in Lithonia. Employees confirm that the entertainment facility will on Sunday, December 4 close for the final time at 10PM. Round1 opened their location at The Mall at Stonecrest (2929 Turner Hill Road) March 4, 2017, in a space created by the combination of several smaller shops. No explanation was given for the closure.
After two brief years in business, it appears Mrs. Winner's has closed in Sandy Springs. ToNeTo Atlanta readers report that Mrs. Winner's has been closed for the past several days with calls to the restaurant left unanswered. Located at 8550 Roswell Road, Mrs. Winner's debuted in late 2020 in place of what had most recently been a Bojangles.
Nordstrom has announced that it will open one of its off-price "rack" stores in Kennesaw. The new Nordstrom Rack will open in Barrett Place, an existing shopping center at 860 Barrett Place Boulevard, just off Ernest Barrett Parkway, not far from Town Center at Cobb. The new store will replace OfficeMax which is currently open but is slated to close in the coming months.
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Kroger announced Friday it plans to close two locations — "Baby Kroger" at 720 Commerce Drive in Decatur and "Disco Kroger" at 3330 Piedmont Road in Buckhead. The Decatur location, which has been open for 21 years, will close as of December 2. The Piedmont Road store, which has been in business 47 years, will close December 9 according to the press release.
Urban Hai, a new eatery from restaurateur Gary Lin, opened earlier today in Midtown. The 3,600 square foot restaurant space is situated in the 77 12th project and is located between DUA Vietnamese Noodle Soup and Sam's of San Francisco. The new Szechuan eatery replaces BurgerFi which opened in the complex in early 2014, but was closed by January 2018. The space has been vacant in the years since. ToNeTo Atlanta first reported on the upcoming restaurant last November.
Wawa, the popular chain of convenience stores and gas stations, announced plans Wednesday to expand to Southern and Coastal Georgia. The chain plans to open its first Georgia store in 2024 with the potential for up to 20 additional stores in the market in the years to come.
