Thursday, August 11, 2022

[CLOSURE ALERT] Plant Based Pizzeria Out Cold in Sandy Springs

Plant Based Pizzeria, which in early 2021 opened what was then its second overall location in Sandy Springs, has closed.  The restaurant, located at 8540 Roswell Road [Huntridge Center] opened January 10, 2021, and closed "temporarily" sometime in July, a move we have now confirmed is permanent. (The last submission on Yelp.com was a four star review on July 18.)  The restaurant, which also served plant-based burgers, claimed to be Atlanta's first "all-vegan pizzeria."   

Business partners Paul Jordan and Marisa Acoff opened the original Plant Based Pizza January 2019 at 730 Barnett Street, just off Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta.  The restaurant opened in place of a traditional pizza joint, Rocco's New York Pizza, which had previously closed in the 3,300 square foot space.   Since its opening, Plant Based Pizzeria has reportedly served pizza to celebrities such as Jermaine Dupri and Keri Hilson, as well as thousands of other vegans and "flexitarians" alike. 

The 4,600 square foot Sandy Springs outpost was significantly larger than the Atlanta restaurant and despite benefiting from superior visibility, still suffered the same fate as at least seven prior restaurant concepts that previously occupied the same space.  

B Social Supper Club was the most recent occupant before the pizzeria.  Other previous occupants of the anchor space include CasAgave, Rock 'N' Taco, Moderna, taqueria + teatro, The Old Crow Grill & Tavern, Foxy's Sports Bar & Chop House, and Driggers Sports Grill, among others.  [Rock 'N' Taco late last year "relocated" from Buckhead to the former Pastis space on Canton Street in Historic Downtown Roswell.]  

At least four different brokerages have leased the center, too, including DELZA Properties, Green-Koh Commercial Real Estate, Hale Retail Group and Perimeter Commercial Real Estate, among others.    

Did you ever dine at Plant Based Pizzeria in Sandy Springs?  Are you surprised the restaurant closed?   What is your favorite plant-based restaurant in metro Atlanta?   

Please share your thoughts below. 

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once checked out the menu on their website and their yelp record. The concept was not structured for any great success. The price points were just too high for pizza in general and for the neighborhood. I believe their notion of plant-based comes from the trend of veganism in the African-American culture which is born out of the notion that eating animals is repressive. this trend became even more famous when New York City’s new mayor kept repeating or rather defending his alleged veganism in about a dozen seemingly back to back press conferences reiterating that he practices veganism. I think an entire establishment devoted to the plant-based pizza notion may be a little before its time. Everyone knows you can go to any pizza shop and pile on the veggies and poof you’d have your own plant-based pizza, which is normalized. I am not vegan or vegetarian however I prefer only veggies on my pizza with no meat. if you wanted to go deeper than the grains-based crust, most pizza shops now offer cauliflower crust as an option. The center does not strike me as one that is a “destination” and would not have sustainable traffic.

Anonymous said...

thank you to Eli for bringing us these great curated stories of our communities

Ham said...

Favorite plant based restaurant? Vegetable plate at Matthews Cafeteria in Tucker...

Anonymous said...

LOL, how could anyone not see this coming. What a stupid concept and idea guaranteed to lose money.

Anonymous said...

What a terrible name...

Anonymous said...

Ate there once, it was decent pizza but restaurant itself was quite drab and employees quite uninterested. There was no one else there when we ate, so no surprise that it’s closing

Anonymous said...

The landlord was trying to work with a unique concept per usual, they did not hold up their end up the bargain

Anonymous said...

New York City mayor Eric Adams and his first few days of office – “I eat a plant-based diet” and he repeated it dozens of times because folks called him out when they saw him eating meat in Restaurants - in that moment he himself, even so being African-American, was kowtowing and virtue signaling to the African-American constituents - to the poster who called the pizza shop ridiculous and name end by using the phrase “plant-based “is doing the same thing trying to kowtow and virtue signal to the African-American consumer. this article got me curious and I googled African-American veganism and actually found a lengthy article on Wikipedia and dozens of others that explain the phenomenon

Anonymous said...

Shut up

Anonymous said...

Which makes me wonder how a similar concept will do in the former Zesto in Little 5 points. Seems to cater to a small demographic.

Anonymous said...

Go kick a football nerd

Anonymous said...

wtf

Anonymous said...

Has there been anything successful in that space since Digger's?

Also, I miss Digger's.

Anonymous said...

this is 2020, nerds get all the nookie!

Anonymous said...

The ignorance of people in these comments. PBP was amazing and loved by the vegan community. Hope they find a smaller space on that side of ATL.

Alex said...

Well I'm sure "PBP" will be missed by all 16 of you.

Anonymous said...

That's just it. A restaurant as specialized as PBP doesn't do well to the omnivore, suburban community that will try (and if it tastes good), try again. We were told how awesome the place was so, my 20-year-old son and I tried it last year. We are confirmed meat-loving omnivores who LOVE pizza and we EAT EVERYTHING. We tried the "cheeseburger" pizza and the spicy jalapeno pizza and I guess we don't do well on the vegan spectrum, as they both were horrible. We both commented about the compromise in taste to certify it as a vegan menu item. The vegan cheese had a weird aftertaste and the fake impossible/beyond meats were weird in texture and taste.

Anonymous said...

👍

Anonymous said...

I loved this place but the prices were already high before the price increased again. Sucks to see it go.

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