Monday, August 8, 2022

[CLOSURE ALERT] Scalini's Suddenly Shutters in Smyrna

Scalini's Italian Restaurant announced Monday that it has closed for business.  The restaurant, located at 2390 Cobb Parkway, a Smyrna area mainstay for more than forty years, closed as of dinner service on Sunday August 8.  The post announcing the closure went live Monday, at which point it spread like wildfire as longtime patrons learned the devastating news.  

Although it's unclear if staff or customers were advised in advance of the closure, the restaurant's landlord, Vision Properties, appears to have been quietly marketing the space, according to materials on its website.  Scalini's provided no explanation for their closure.  

The full statement reads:

"After forty years of service to our community, we are sad to announce the closing of our landmark restaurant. Thank you to all our customers for your patronage. 

To all the members of our Eggplant Baby Club, thank you for sharing in the most wonderful time a family experiences.  You have enriched the atmosphere of our restaurant with the famous "Baby Wall" of pictures.  Almost every visitor to our restaurant has enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful babies!  

To all our employees past and present, Thank You!  Thanks for being a part of our wonderful forty two years in Smyrna, Georgia.   

If you get hungry for our world famous salad and garlic rolls, they are served by our sister restaurants, Provino's Italian Restaurants.  Provino's will honor your Scalini's gift certificates. Visit the website, provinos.com for locations and hours of the seven locations of Provino's. Provino's serves the famous eggplant parmigiana that has been served to expectant mother's at Scalini's for decades in hopes of speeding up the delivery process.  Provino's also serves the complimentary pasta specialty dinner to you on your birthday just like Scalini's did.   

Thanks again for allowing us to stay in Smyrna for such a long time and we hope you find us at Provino's.  We look forward to serving you there!

There are six Provino's in Georgia: Canton, Cumming, Kennesaw, Rome, Snellville and Buford, near the Mall of Georgia.  The company also operates a single location in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  

The now former Scalini's space is about 7,700 square feet and is being offered for lease for approximately $13,500 monthly, according to leasing materials from Vision Properties, owner of Promenade Plaza.  Best Buy, which anchors the center today, was previously a Loehmann's retail store with the center, like Brighten Park in Brookhaven, also once known as Loehmann's Plaza.  

Scalini's is at least the third longstanding Smyrna area restaurant to close in recent years.  

Ken's Corner Grill closed in May after nearly five decades of service along Spring Road in Smyrna.  Folk's, once part of a robust network of southern restaurants, closed down entirely in late 2020, including its nearly four decade old restaurant along Cobb Parkway, not far from Scalini's.  

What will you miss most about Scalini's?  Are you a mother who ate at Scalini's and has your baby's photo on the "Baby Wall?" What would you like to see open in place of Scalini's?

Please share your thoughts below.  

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang! Sad to see it close! Good times and good food! You will be missed!

Anonymous said...

We used to love Scalini's, but the last few times we went over the past year you could feel the changes. The service went down hill and the food wasn't up to par compared to how this place used to be. I'll miss what this place used to be but at least we still have Provino's for the homestyle Italian we have loved over the years.

Anonymous said...

What shock to hear about the closure. Enjoyed the service, food and beverages over the years.

The salad and garlic bread was amazing and always great.

Best wishes for the staff and their families.

At one point, they had a location in East Cobb, off of Johnson Ferry Road that closed several years ago.

Anonymous said...

This is definitely the best old-school Italian food in Atlanta. Love their salads and garlic rolls. Glad that I'll still be able to get the same food at Provino's.

Anonymous said...

Dis beez all about duh staff…as always.

Anonymous said...

We went there only once and it was in the last couple of years, the place is an absolute shit hole with extreme dirt and graffiti inside all of the booths. The entire place is over a dozen years overdue for a paint job and deep clean. I wonder what their most recent health scores and remediation directions have been.

Anonymous said...

the humongous family sized salad for the table and the overflowing bowl of garlic rolls is a low cost gimmick…… to get you to repeat oh I love their salad and garlic rolls. and to keep their prices higher. the practice is somewhat ubiquitous throughout Italian cuisine, starting with Olive Garden. Even Maggiano’s is starting to give away bread and salad with most of their entrĂ©es. nothing is free, but everything is included.

Anonymous said...

I for one judge an Italian restaurant by their pasta, is there pasta al dente? If you need to look this up you haven’t had real Italian cuisine. I also judge an Italian restaurant based on their meatball, is it made with veal, pork and beef? you can tell a lot about an Italian restaurant, the entire menu, based on the quality of the meatball. The red sauce, does it stick to the pasta or drip off of it, is there a pool of red water at the bottom of your pasta bowl? there’s one more thing I look for although I don’t judge them by it, it is just a pet peeve, if you claim to be an authentic Italian restaurant and do not serve your spaghetti/linguine with a pasta spoon, that drives me crazy to have to ask for one.

Anonymous said...

“THEIR” pasta is awesome! If you can do better go for it!!

scott from NB said...

I wonder if the closure is related to the inability of many service industries to hire qualified people? The "pandemic's" lasting effect is the deterioration of work ethic at entry level positions. It is too easy to lounge around at the house.

Anonymous said...

Not judging you for wanting to eat spaghetti etc. with a spoon, but an authentic Italian family owned Italian restaurant would rather shut down than serve pasta with a spoon.

Anonymous said...

My wife and I went on some of our first dates there. Chicken cannelloni in a curtain booth is still our favorite date night to this day. I wish we could have gone more often. So sad to see them go.

Anonymous said...

to last poster, do you understand how the spoon is used *in conjunction with* the fork? If you watch the Sopranos or even the Godfather just for cultural references of course you’ll see the authentic Italians they modeled the characters after are eating their sunday spaghetti with a fork and spoon. No you don’t use the spoon on its own and you don’t scoop up spaghetti with the spoon, you take fork and you twist it full of spaghetti while leaning into the spoon so that all the spaghetti‘s are in wound tightly into a ball and no spaghetti‘s are hanging down or left behind. for what it’s worth I’ve also seen Pauly D and the situation eat pasta with a spoon and fork. the nice folks at the E. 48th St. market in Dunwoody, Charlie Anita Andrea and Claudia also eat their spaghetti or linguine with a fork and spoon. their shop is as authentic and real as can be because it just is by default. If you haven’t yet experienced E. 48th St. market in dunwoody I would recommend giving it a shot.

Anonymous said...

I've been going to scalinis 31 years my kids and I have enjoyed our birthday meals there sad to be closed without warning! I love the garlic rolls eggplant manicotti salad. Lots of good times over the years!!!

Anonymous said...

are you one of those weirdos that eat pizza with a fork and knife?

Anonymous said...

Maybe they don’t work for $2.13 an hour. If it’s such an easy entry level job they should have been able to find more employees đŸ˜’

Anonymous said...

No self-respecting Italian would be caught dead eating spaghetti with a fork and spoon.....LOL

Anonymous said...

italians are the worst ppl to exist

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