Monday, December 19, 2022

Bits & Bites

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. 

Five Guys Burgers & Fries plans to open a new location along LaVista Road in Northlake (Tower) Festival shopping center in Tucker.  The new burger joint is opening in a roughly 3,000 square foot space adjacent to an existing Verizon location.  According the Five Guys website, the Lorton, Virginia-based company currently operates 55 units across Georgia including an existing Tucker outpost at 4306 Lawrenceville Highway, a small strip center across from the Kroger/Walmart-anchored Cofer Crossing.  

BoxLunch opened its fourth Atlanta area location Thursday December 15 at Cumberland Mall near Smyrna.  The Industry, California-based gift and novelty retail chain operates three existing Atlanta area locations at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw, and at the Mall of Georgia in Buford.  BoxLunch was launched in 2015 by parent company Hot Topic.  

Seungmin Lee, owner of popular Korean fried chicken eatery Hello Chicken, has announced the closure of her restaurant.  "The competition of fried chicken and rising cost are hard, so I have to close down. My last day open will be January 1."  Hello Chicken, which opened in 2017 in place of Lee's Tofu House at 5295 Buford Highway in Doraville, became a popular neighborhood spot.  The restaurant offered "Seoul Grub," including Korean Fried Chicken, wings., bibimbop bowls, and Korean tacos, among other offerings.  

International boba tea franchise Tiger Sugar is opening its third metro Atlanta location.  The new shop, located in the H Mart-anchored Peachtree Pavilion shopping center in Doraville, will be located above MeetFresh in suite A-216.  The new Tiger Sugar joins existing Atlanta area locations in Duluth and Kennesaw.  

Shake Shack will open its eighth Atlanta area location Tuesday December 20 at Westside Provisions District (1168 Howell Mill Road) in West Midtown.  The burger, fries and shake joint replaces YEAH Burger, which closed this past June after twelve years in business.  The New York-based chain entered the Atlanta market in 2014 with a location at Buckhead Village District. In the years since, the company opened six additional locations including those at Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, along the BeltLine on DeKalb Avenue, and at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  The new West Midtown outpost marks the fourth unit the company has added in 2022 to the Atlanta market joining those in Alpharetta, which debuted the new "Shack Track" ordering process in February, Alpharetta, Midtown at Piedmont Park, which debuted in April, and another Buckhead outpost which joined the Lenox Square food court offerings in August.  

A new location of Pure Green, a juice joint, is slated to open in Buckhead Crossing shopping center near the Lindbergh MARTA station.  The new juice franchise is opening along Sidney Marcus Boulevard in a roughly 1,200 square foot space next to where Sugar Baby Creamery recently opened.  The New York-based franchise entered the Atlanta market earlier this year with an outpost on Highland Avenue in Inman Park.  

Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar, which we previously announced was progressing towards a planned February 1 opening in Alpharetta, plans to hire more than 200 people for its new restaurant. The restaurant opening at the corner of Haynes Bridge Road and North Point Parkway just off exit 9 of Georgia 400 is offering new hires a $500 signing bonus to be paid upon completion of training.  The new Alpharetta outpost marks the third in metro Atlanta for the growing chain, joining existing locations in Peachtree Corners and Dunwoody.  

Salt Factory Pub made their ITP debut Wednesday December 14 at Madison Yards along Memorial Drive in Reynoldstown.  The new gastropub is the fourth in metro Atlanta and fifth overall for the growing chain that started on Canton Street in Historic Downtown Roswell in 2008.  Following the success in Roswell, additional locations were added to Alpharetta and Woodstock.  This past May, the group expanded to Alabama with the opening of Salt Factory Pub in Huntsville's MidCity District.    Salt Factory is part of F&H Food Group which also includes Little Alley Steak locations in Buckhead and Roswell.  

Williams-Sonoma plans to close its store at The Avenue Peachtree City in Fayette County.  The store, an original tenant from the lifestyle center's 2001 debut, will reportedly close by the end of December, if not sooner.  The store is reportedly not doing much in the way of a "liquidation sale" with most merchandise transferred to other stores.  The one exception is the reported offering of select furniture and fixtures.  The San Francisco-based housewares retailer this past January closed a pair of Atlanta area stores at Lenox Square in Buckhead and at The Forum Peachtree Corners in Peachtree Corners.  In years past, Williams-Sonoma has closed Atlanta area stores including those at North Point Mall in Alpharetta, Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, Mall of Georgia in Buford and Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth.   The company continues to operate three full-line stores in metro Atlanta: Ponce City Market in Atlanta, Avalon in Alpharetta and Avenue East Cobb in East Cobb. Williams-Sonoma also operates an outlet at North Georgia Premium Outlets in Dawsonville. 

Rreal Tacos, which started in Midtown Atlanta in late 2015 and expanded to West Midtown this past June, opened a new location at the Parkview on Peachtree development along Peachtree Boulevard in Chamblee December 12.  The new taco joint opened in a space originally home to an ill-fated franchise of Chronic Tacos, which had more recently been home to Yummy Place, a Korean fried chicken eatery.  In March, a fourth Rreal Tacos is expected to open in City Walk, a Kroger-anchored shopping center along Hammond Drive in Sandy Springs.  Here, Rreal Tacos will open in a roughly 2,500 square foot space most recently home to Apron + Ladle, a breakfast and lunch eatery. Apron + Ladle owners Arte Antoniades and Nik Panagopoulos closed their restaurant at the end of November when they sold it to Damian Otero and Miguel Hernandez, the owners of Rreal Tacos.  (Arte and Nik previously operated a different restaurant, Teela Taqueria, from the same space until its closure in 2019).  Rreal Tacos Sandy Springs is slated to be followed by additional locations in Buckhead, Decatur and Gwinnett County.  

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

very surprised to see 5 Guys moving into the Northlake Festival ghost town.

Atlantan99 said...

@Anon RE: Five Guys,

Totally get your surprised feeling but while the center does seem to be rather "dead," Goodwill is actively renovating their store and a new K Pot Korean BBQ & Hot Pot is also working towards opening in the onetime Blockbuster Video turned uniform store near SAS Shoes.

Thanks as always for your comments and readership.

Anonymous said...

That Five Guys would be right next door to a Chick-Fil-A on the other side of the Verizon store.

Christa said...

Really sad about WS in PTC. That's been my go-to for years, and I'm really going to miss them.

Ham said...

If Emory moves a large number of jobs to that area as planned, it may make sense for Five Guys to be there. While I find their burgers/fries to be decent it is a little overpriced.

Anonymous said...

The Five Guys will have a lot of visibility compared to the mostly empty shopping center behind it. Kind of surprised but happy it is opening. I miss the Williams-Sonoma stores that have closed.

Anonymous said...

Way overpriced!

Anonymous said...

Way overpriced

Anonymous said...

Would have been really funny if it opened in the old Fuddruckers space, but that would be way more space than 5 Guys uses.

Anonymous said...

Williams-Sonoma hates the Atlanta market

Anonymous said...

Emory already has a fair number of employees in their new space. Maybe more coming, not sure. In any case, it puzzled me that Bambenelli's moved when all those people were about to be right in their front yard. Oh well. I don't love 5 Guys, but glad to hear of activity there.

What is happening in the parking lot of the mall, in front of Macy's?

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone go up a flight of stairs for a cup of tea in the super H mart center when there are 2 places on the ground level selling the same thing?

Anonymous said...

5 guys is very very very over priced for the product they produce.

the gimmick of a huge amount of fries piled on top of your brown bagged burger has completely gone by the wayside.

Their fry portions are not worth the price of admission, any longer.

even though it was clear you were actually paying for the huge portion, nevertheless, the gimmick was noteworthy only because of its perceived value.

The only thing five guys has actually accomplished is to push up the price of burgers from Wendy’s and everywhere else when they realized people will pay $10 for a stinking burger.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous December 19, 2022 at 2:25 PM - they should Atlanta be the hood! Be getting pot and pan at Walmart!

Anonymous said...

Apron and Ladle was really good and always had people in there. Sad and surprised to see it go. Not many good, local breakfast places in the area. Can’t imagine a taco place will last long.

Anonymous said...

very surprised William Sonoma closed the forum peachtree corners given its central location in the center of all the other ws that have closed.

I understand why they wouldn’t keep lenox because frankly anything at Lenox these days is no longer a destination shopping experience because lenox is so crazy. Navigating lenox and then having to deal with the risk of thug activity is really offputting and not conducive to a pleasurable shopping experience.

as a matter of fact I look for locations other than lenox and would Drive even up to an hour to avoid Lenox.

most everything else that’s *not* gimmicky you can find at perimeter mall.

they should move all the luxury jewelry and luxury watch stores to Phipps in which that in itself could revitalize Phipps especially in the era of Nobu. at Phipps,

Do they not see the traffic that Tiffany’s is able to draw? If I were the leasing agent I would be all over that.

Anonymous said...

I made the first comment. With good visibility from Lavista, maybe the 5G will do well--although we find them rather pricey. I've long thought that if there was any way to turn some of the NLF or NL Mall space into townhouses or detached houses, they'd actually sell like hotcakes and would be a boost for local businesses. There are plenty of people that like living close to 285 and walking or a short drive from Kroger/Publix. Maybe city of Tucker can gradually make this happen.

RayAtL said...

We liked going to Lee's Tofu House, and the first time we tried Hello Chicken it was fine.
Every subsequent visit was worse and worse with some of the rudest staff you’ve ever met. Never went back.

Anonymous said...

Five Guys is disgusting. Just take a look at the grease-soaked bag it comes in. Heart attack on a bun.

Anonymous said...

Fat is flavor. What is wrong with you?

Anonymous said...

five guys is horrible

CloseOTP said...

Some of you people really make me laugh. 5 Guys is the reason Wendy's burgers are more expensive? Um, maybe it's the price of beef and other ingredients. Greasy bag at 5 Guys? Throw fried food fresh from a deep fryer in a brown paper bag, guess what happens. And people don't go to 5 Guys for healthy food. 5 Guys overpriced? Compared to similarly sized burgers, it's pretty much the same - maybe a dollar more? And by the way, I go to 5 Guys probably 2x at most a year so not some huge fan. As for the comment that WS hates Atlanta - that's chock full of stupidity. Businesses enter and exit markets based on a variety of factors - the biggest one is do they make money? WS is not closing stores because they hate Atlanta. They are closing because those stores are not meeting the financial goals set.

Carl said...

Congratulations, you have more comments on this ONE Article than that Other Guy has on his whole website...

Anonymous said...

what other website? I don’t see the reference.

Anonymous said...

the fries taste like vokmit

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