Bits & Bites

A new restaurant called "Sister" has opened at Hotel Colee at 3377 Peachtree Road in Buckhead.  The restaurant opens in place of Cook Hall, which closed at the hotel, formerly the W Atlanta Buckhead, at the end of 2020.  Sister "soft opened" Friday July 1 with a breakfast and lunch menu but is expected to add a dinner menu and "grand open" in a couple of weeks, according to an employee at the restaurant.  Sister is the third newly introduced hotel restaurant to open within blocks of one another in the past few months.  Brassica, a new "French-Southern," restaurant debuted at the Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead in late March, while "celebrity Chef" Scott Conant opened an outpost of his Italian eatery "The Americano" at the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta in late May.  

Fresh One Kitchen, a new restaurant from Raymond Chen, founder of The Juicy Crab, is slated to open a location in Parkside Shops, a Tuesday Morning-anchored shopping center along Roswell Road in Sandy Springs.  The concept was quietly introduced earlier this year, with a location expected to open soon at Main Street at Town Center, a shopping center along Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw.  The eatery, which shares a strikingly similar name and menu with Florida's Fresh Kitchen, is expected to feature assorted bowls and salads with both "signature bowls" and customizable bowls.    A recently introduced Fresh One Kitchen website indicates that there is also a location open within the existing Juicy Crab at Howell Mill Square, but despite what seems to be an active ordering process via its website, an employee at The Juicy Crab indicates that it's not yet open.    In Sandy Springs, Fresh One Kitchen will occupy a roughly 1,800 square foot space most recently home to a Subway franchise.  Chen introduced The Juicy Crab, a Cajun seafood restaurant in Duluth, in 2015 and has today through franchising expanded the brand to nearly 50 locations, primarily in the southeast.  Although little has been released publicly about Fresh One Kitchen, plans call for Chen to franchise the concept like he did The Juicy Crab.  

Breakfast concept Biscuit Belly, which announced in October 2021 plans to open their first Atlanta area location in March 2022, has pushed those plans.  The chain, currently with locations in Louisville, Kentucky and southern Indiana, still plans to open in Acworth but is now targeting September, according to an updated Google listing.  The fast-casual restaurant plans to open as many as five franchised units in the state, with the Acworth outpost, a 2,700 square foot restaurant in the Kroger-anchored Butler Creek Plaza, expected to be the first.  Subsequent openings are also planned for Marietta and Woodstock, as well as Newnan and Columbus.  Missy Moon and Robert Estapa with Fresh Development One LLC will operate the Georgia Biscuit Belly locations. The pair previously operated several franchise restaurant concepts including Newk’s Eatery and Quiznos.

LGE Community Credit Union is adding a new Sandy Springs branch.  The new branch, the Marietta-based credit union's 15th, will open in Abernathy Square, a Publix-anchored shopping center at the corner of Abernathy and Roswell Roads.  The new branch will occupy about 2,500 square feet in a portion of a space most recently home to Regions Bank, which itself relocated to a former BB&T nearby.  

A new location of pop culture and collectibles retailer Box Lunch is opening at Cumberland Mall.  The new store will open on the mall's first floor, not far from Macy's.  There are currently three Box Lunch stores in metro Atlanta including those at Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw, Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody and Mall of Georgia in Buford.  

One of Atlanta's few remaining BurgerIM franchises is for sale.  The baby burger eatery, located in Toco Hills shopping center, 2929 N Druid Hills Road, opened in early 2020 in a 1,500 square foot former non-restaurant space.    The sales listing from The Shumacher Group advertises the restaurant as "Fully Equipped, Fully Staffed & Profitable" with the option to "keep burgers with a re-brand and new name or convert to any landlord accepted concept."  The sale does not include the franchise, name or brand, which is probably a good thing, considering the challenges facing the brand.    The restaurant's rent is $6,050 per month "All-In," with eight years remaining on the lease. The listing indicates that the eatery generated gross sales of $581,548 in 2021 generating a net profit of $120,877.  The business is offered at $295,000.  

Pho Dai Viet, a locally owned Vietnamese restaurant, has been listed for sale by The Shumacher Group.  Located at 4279 Roswell Road in the Publix-anchored Chastain Square shopping center, the restaurant serves classic Vietnamese fare including banh mi and pho.  The roughly 3,200 square foot restaurant comes with rent of $13,300 monthly, including common area maintenance (CAM).  The business is listed as profitable, with the option to "keep or convert."  The business is offered at $150,000.