Saturday, June 25, 2022

Bits & Bites

The owners of Slope's BBQ on Johnson Ferry Road in Sandy Springs have ditched the Slope's franchise and rebranded.  "We are excited to let our friends and the Sandy Springs community know that after 20 years of serving southern BBQ, today we are rebranding to McDaniel’s Qn2!" The new restaurant reportedly features the same great BBQ, sides, and friendly faces, with the new name the biggest "change."   "Our new name embodies the key elements of our restaurant: Andy & Glenn [McDaniel's] ⭐️BBQ [Q] ⭐️2 [most menu items include two sides]"  The McDaniel brothers also operate the Slope's BBQ in Alpharetta which which for the time being remains unchanged. 

Tom Catherall, founder and former owner of Here to Serve Restaurants, is relaunching one of his former concepts, this time in Rosemary Beach, Florida.  aja, which when in Atlanta was located in Alliance Center near Phipps Plaza, will be reintroduced in Florida offering "elevated Asian."  Readers then and now have pointed out that the name (and logo) are the same as Steely Dan's 1977 studio album.  According to leasing materials, the new restaurant is opening in place of a shuttered Barbacoa Mexican Grill at the 30Avenue development.  During the summer of 2020, Catherall introduced Lola Coastal Italian, another former Here to Serve concept, to the 30A area, opening at The Village at South Walton Beach.  Lola in Atlanta was situated in the Terminus building at the corner of Piedmont and Peachtree Roads in the heart of Buckhead.  

Shake Shack, which has already this year opened new locations in Alpharetta near Avalon and in Midtown near Piedmont Park, has not just one, but two more locations in their Atlanta pipeline.  In addition to their upcoming food court location at Lenox Square, their first in an Atlanta mall, they will also be opening in West Midtown.  YEAH Burger closed its last remaining location at Westside Provisions District June 12, with Shake Shack due to open in its place in the coming months.  

A new express car wash is planned for 901 Chattahoochee Avenue, just off Howell Mill Road and behind a QuikTrip, near Berkeley Park. The new express car wash will be 4,375 square feet and feature 23 vacuum spaces.  About three miles away, another express car wash recently opened on the site of a former RaceTrac at the corner of Bolton Road and Marietta Boulevard.   

Following its acquisition in January, the apartment high-rise originally known as "05 Buckhead" has been rebranded as "The Tower on Piedmont."  The 20-story,  155 unit multifamily development debuted in 2009 and is part of former owner Coro Realty's Buckhead Place project near the intersection of Peachtree and Piedmont Roads.  Houston-based Lionstone Investments bought the residential tower from Coro Realty for $69 million in 2021.  The tower, previously managed by Gables Residential, is now third-party managed by Atlanta-based Wood Partners.  Wood Partners also owns and manages The Huntley behind Phipps Plaza and is developing an eight-story, 290 unit multifamily community at 3314 Piedmont Road, a former surface parking lot, also part of the overall Buckhead Place project.  

In related news, Coro Realty has retained CBRE's National Retail Partners - Southeast to market for sale Buckhead Place.  The sales offering describes the property as a "+/- 7.99-acre, core collection of infill retail and structured parking strategically located at the irreplaceable corner of Peachtree and Piedmont Roads in Atlanta, the absolute epicenter of Buckhead."  Anchor tenants Marshalls and LA Fitness occupy about two-thirds of the 135,764 retail square footage that also includes Salon Studios, Massage Infinity and Amalfi Pizza / Red Phone Booth.  Buckhead Place also includes 908 owned parking spaces within two structured parking decks and a sizeable surface lot.  The offering does not include either of aforementioned current or upcoming residential components but does include a +/- 1.4-acre parcel that fronts Peachtree Road and currently includes a single story, 6,800 square foot building to which ownership has an ongoing termination right that can be activated at any time.  The building is currently home to David's Bridal, but was before that a Houlihan's restaurant.  The parcel's current zoning allows for up to 399,471 office/retail/restaurant square feet, but could go through a rezoning process for the potential approval of residential.   

Starbucks has closed its kiosk location within the Kroger at Fountain Oaks shopping center along Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.  The coffee shop operates freestanding drive-thru enabled locations both a few minutes north and a few minutes south of the Fountain Oaks location on Roswell Road.  Starbucks continues to operate coffee shops in numerous Atlanta area Kroger stores including those in Duluth, Lawrenceville and East Cobb.  Starbucks closed a short-lived coffee kiosk in the Toco Hills Kroger several years ago.  

A new Chipotle Mexican Grill is planned for the site of a former IHOP at 5131 South Cobb Drive in Smyrna.  The new South Cobb Drive outpost is the third new unit slated for Cobb County.  ToNeTo Atlanta reported in December that Newport Beach-based Chipotle also has new locations planned for 2675 Windy Hill Road (in place of a former Wells Fargo) and 40 Cobb Parkway (in place of Big Chicken Pawn), beside The Big Chicken.    

Paces & Vine, a popular Vinings area restaurant which was first listed for sale this past December for $500,000, has now been reduced to $395,000.  The roughly 4,800 square foot restaurant is located at 4300 Paces Ferry Road #250, within the Vinings Jubilee project.  The restaurant is advertised as "fully equipped, fully staffed, turnkey or convert."  The sale does not include the name and business.     

In other Vinings Jubilee news, bartaco plans to open its highly anticipated location later this fall. The new bartaco, the fourth in metro Atlanta for the Arlington, Virginia-based chain, will open at 2950 New Paces Ferry Road in place of Guaco Joe's, which closed in early January 2020.    

Guthrie's, the popular chicken chain seen by many as the grandfather of the fried chicken tender, is bringing another location to Georgia.  Already with nine restaurants spread across the state, a new Guthrie's is currently under construction at 3685 Browns Bridge Road in Cumming. The Auburn-based chain was launched in 1965 by Hal Guthrie and today includes more than 40 locations across seven states.

Pei Wei Asian Kitchen has opened in place of former Mandarin Express outposts in four separate Atlanta area malls.  The new eatery, officially "Pei Wei Asian Express," is now open in Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw, Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody and at Southlake Mall in Morrow.  The former P.F. Chang's China Bistro concept was acquired by Lorne Goldberg's PWD Acquisition in 2019, and joined the firm's existing quick-serve Asian concepts: Pick Up Stix, Leeann Chin and Mandarin Express.  According to signage posted at the Cumberland location,  Pei Wei will feature "all your Mandarin favorites with exciting new options coming soon."  In addition to the four aforementioned locations, there is also an existing Pei Wei Asian Express in the International terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  

Sweetgreen plans to open its latest Atlanta area restaurant Thursday, July 7 at Ashford Lane in Dunwoody.  The new eatery, the Los Angeles-based company's fifth in metro Atlanta, was originally slated to open June 28, but like fellow upcoming Dunwoody area restaurant North Italia, ran into delays and had to push its opening.  The new Perimeter area Sweetgreen replaces Shane's Rib Shack in the Target-anchored project.  ToNeTo Atlanta readers are invited to take part in Sweetgreen's pre-opening by enjoying a complimentary meal on July 5 or 6 by clicking here.  Also, if you don't yet have the Sweetgreen app, download it and then follow these steps to get a free $15!   The new Sweetgreen joins existing locations at Ponce City Market, Colony Square, Lenox Square and at Star Metals on the Westside.

4 comments:

Ham said...

I never ate at Slopes, but I had heard of it. So, why change names? If I had been in the area and wanted BBQ I might have checked out Slopes, but not McDaniel's.

Anonymous said...

I don't get out to Sandy Springs very often and I wondered if Slopes was still there. Glad to hear that it is, I've had their Q several times and always enjoyed it. I will definitely eat there the next time I'm in SS.

Anonymous said...

I think they were a franchise so it’s likely they didn’t want to co to use paying a royalty to them.

Anonymous said...

RIP Slope's.

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