Saturday, May 13, 2023

[CLOSURE ALERT] First Ever Chick-fil-A Restaurant Closing

Landmark Chick-fil-A restaurant to serve final customers next week.  Signage posted at the Greenbriar Mall restaurant confirms the restaurant will close as of Saturday May 20th at 4PM.  As local Atlantans will recall, the Greenbriar Chick-fil-A was the very first Chick-fil-A and has been serving the southwest Atlanta community for more than 50 years.  

According to a restaurant employee, the Greenbriar Mall Chick-fil-A has been owned and operated by Chick-fil-A corporate since 2018.  The restaurant has in the years since continued to experience declining sales, which led the company to its decision to close it.  

Chick-fil-A's closure follows the closure of a freestanding and relatively recently renovated Captain D's restaurant along Greenbriar Parkway in front of the mall earlier this year.  

The mall, built in 1964, was designed by John Portman's Edwards & Portman and was one of the southeast's first enclosed malls.  Its debut brought anchors JC Penney and Rich's to the area.  Despite years of success, the ensuing decades have experienced continual declines both in foot traffic and sales at the mall.  

In addition to Rich's and JCPenney, there was also a Happy Herman's Liquor Store, a Woolworth's five-and-dime store and a branch of the Atlanta Public Library.  JC Penney closed in 1985.  A Burlington Coat Factory store opened on September 1, 1995, but relocated to Camp Creek Parkway in nearby East Point in 2019.   In 1996, a Magic Johnson Theatre opened, but in 2009, while managed by AMC Theatres, it closed.   On January 6, 2021, it was announced that Macy's would be closing 45 stores in April 2021, which included the Greenbriar store.  

S. Truett Cathy opened the Dwarf Grill (later renamed the Dwarf House) at 461 Central Avenue in Hapeville in 1946.  It was here that Cathy tested and later perfected the boneless chicken sandwich, today known as the Original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich.  (The Dwarf House was demolished in 2021 and reopened as a much larger restaurant on the same site in 2022.) 

It was in Greenbriar Mall, however, on November 24, 1967, that Cathy introduced the Chick-fil-A brand and "altered the fast-food landscape forever."  The restaurant, which currently has its own page on the Chick-fil-A website, was incredibly innovative for its time yet served a simple menu comprised of little more than the Original Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich (which was just 59 cents), salads with boneless chicken breast, coleslaw, lemon pie, and lemonade.  (The first freestanding Chick-fil-A opened in 1986 on North Druid Hills Road in what is today Brookhaven.  Like the Dwarf House, the restaurant was demolished in 2017, rebuilt, and reopened in 2018 on the same site.)  

We at ToNeTo Atlanta grew up in DeKalb County in the 90s and often found ourselves in metro area malls.  We came to qualify the mall on two key metrics. 1) Did it have a GAP store? and 2) Did it have a Chick-fil-A?  If both were present, it was a respectable mall.  

For years, Chick-fil-A grew its presence within malls but has in recent years significantly reduced its mall presence and, in some cases, added makeshift "drive-thrus" to mall locations to boost accessibility (and sales.)  In 2022, an average freestanding Chick-fil-A rang up sales of more than $8.6 million. Mall-based locations do far less sales and seemingly the Greenbriar Mall location was doing especially poorly.  

The closure at Greenbriar is sad, but not all that surprising given the company's efforts to concentrate on freestanding and more urban locations that provide greater foot traffic.  

Chick-fil-A and its operators have, over the past few years, shuttered several Atlanta area food court locations including those at Northlake Mall in Tucker, North DeKalb Mall near Decatur, Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, and Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth.  This past December the company also closed its restaurant at Valdosta Mall in Valdosta in Great Lakes Mall in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area, and another in Neshaminy Mall in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, among others.  

What is your favorite Chick-fil-A menu item?  Are you surprised to see Chick-fil-A close its Greenbriar Mall restaurant?  What is your fondest memory of Chick-fil-A?

Please share your thoughts below. 

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not surprised. The crime in that area is increasing. No chicken is worth that type of danger. Area is bad. Things need to close

Anonymous said...

Sadly most of the mall locations aren't as successful as they used to be. My earliest memories of Chickfila are from the 70's & 80's when my best friend liked to go there & I didn't understand the plain chicken sandwich idea. Now the original chicken sandwich is my favorite menu item.

Anonymous said...

Who cares!

Anonymous said...

Greenbriar is a sad, pathetic example of how people lose respect for themselves and their community. Once a solid attractive mall anchoring communities of color, it's now a cesspool of tackiness and crime.

Anonymous said...

“Things need to close” why? Where will people that live there go to?

Anonymous said...

Well, malls in general aren’t particularly successful as they used to be. There’s just not much foot traffic in the general areas anymore. At most malls, it seems like people are going to a specific store, rather than wandering around and going into a bunch of stores.

The loss of all the record stores, bookstores, radio shacks, etc really undermined the business model. Most malls no longer have many shops that are fun to just browse around in. And that was the backbone of the mall experience.

Anonymous said...

Not the ‘original’ store, it was remodeled to match current standards.

Ham said...

At one time I worked for a Tech Company located near Gwinnett Place Mall and the mall had not one, but two Chick-fil-a locations. Really sad to see what happened to Malls around Atlanta. Obviously changing shopping & social habits, over development in the retail sector and yes crime or at least the perception of it is killing The Mall as many of us knew it. I miss a lazy afternoon at Lenox, catching a movie, checking out the girls, and eating at places that only had locations at the mall.

Anonymous said...

The first Chick-Fil-A was the Dwarf House in Hapeville

Anonymous said...

To HELL! Lol.

Mike McMichen said...

I worked at The Orange Bowl in Greenbriar Mall near this Chick-fil-A. The CFA employees were mostly family members or church friends of the founders. The strength of their building their brand was the sampling of their chicken to mall customers and employees. The two sons were often passing out the samples. The chicken was freshly hand-breaded on site.

Anonymous said...

Wasn’t there a free standing Chick-Fil-A on Cleveland Ave in East Point that pre-dated the Brookhaven one? I remember going there pre-1986 but I could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Chick-Fil-A at the mall (various: Perimeter, Lennox, Greenbriar, Cumberland) meant two things during my childhood (1970s-80s): Christmas and back-to-school time. My family only went to the mall during those two times of year: for Christmas present shopping in December and for back-to-school clothes shopping in August. And those were the only times during the year we got to have Chick-Fil-A. Today, when the restaurant is everywhere, it's not a big deal to go there, but in the '70s and '80s it was a special occasion, since you could only get it at the mall. And because it was--for my very modest working class family--very expensive, we could each only get one sandwich and share on order of fries. So we would savor every bite, since we knew we wouldn't have it again for 4 or 8 months. I tell my son this story and he thinks I grew up in the dark ages. Fond memories though.

Anonymous said...

So basically because that area has a high crime rate people don’t deserve to eat well.

Anonymous said...

So because this area has a high crime rate people don’t deserve to eat well?

Anonymous said...

I don't believe it's the restaurant that's failing. It's the mall that's failing to bring in foot traffic. I mean, who is going to go out of their way to drive to a mall, park, and walk into to food court to get a Chick-fil-A meal when it can be gotten a mile down the road at a fast, polite, safe super-efficient drive-thru?

Anonymous said...

I remember the Dwarf House Restaurant from growing up in Hapeville. Thought it was so cool as a child to enter through the little red door. It is very sad that it has been demolished.

Anonymous said...

What a ridiculous statement…HOW ABOUT WE SQUASH THE CRIME AND THE PERPS???

Anonymous said...

It’s not that people don’t deserve to eat well, but people tend to avoid crime ridden areas. Fewer people means fewer sales means the business can’t stay afloat.

Anonymous said...

Yes. As far back as 1975 there was a standalone CFA at the northwest corner of Cleveland Avenue and Sylvan Road, where Ikhlas Seafood is now. I lived in Hapeville and went to school with the kids of the operator. It was only there for a couple of years.

Anonymous said...

It’s really sad what has happened to malls, and retail in general, over the years. Malls used to have most everything you might need. You can no longer get greeting cards at a mall, or go browse through books, or visit a pet store. A lot of malls used to have a drugstore even. No more toy stores or snack shops. And you used to easily be able to get decent clothes at a decent price. Sorry, but I just cant afford $120 for a shirt like I see at a lot of mall stores. Greenbriar used to be a very nice mall and had lots to bring people there. But as the area went down over the years, my last few visits there for Macys or Burlington I’d just park outside that store, go in and come out. The mall had nothing more for me any longer for various reasons. It’s sad, and sadly not the only mall to suffer similarly.

Anonymous said...

More racist comments.

Anonymous said...

More racist comments.

Anonymous said...

I think you know what he means. But if you like corrections, your comment is not a sentence and has incorrect use of punctuation.

Anonymous said...

Because it has a high crime rate people want to stay well and eat elswhere, A similar fate ended up ruining a much newer Stoncrest Mall, beginning with rovving after school groups driving away shoppers.

Anonymous said...

“…and tackiness and crime OF COLOR.

Anonymous said...

No business can survive in high crime areas such as these. They lose money and its to dangerous for their employees. Very sad but very true for these areas.

Anonymous said...

"So basically because that area has a high crime rate people don’t deserve to eat well."
Or you could say, the employees don't deserve to die at their job. Or you could say they don't deserve it to look like a Waffle House on a late Friday - Saturday night. Or the customer abuse is the excuse. I could go on. Maybe you would like to open a food spot there in that location and tell us how great it is.

Anonymous said...

Wow!

Anonymous said...

Wow!

Anonymous said...

The first Chick-fil-A was at Greenbriar. The Hapeville location was and still is Dwarf House with a larger menu than CFA.
Chick-fil-A was served there but the location was never branded CFA.

Anonymous said...

My first experience with Chick fil A was at the Greenbriar Mall location. I was pregnant with my daughter who is 43 now and had to have a sandwich!That's just how long I've been enjoying eating Chick-fil-A. I was sad to hear the closing of this location. History means something and has value. Pam

Anonymous said...

Re: Chick-Fil-A fries. Does anyone know or remember when they switched to waffle fries? I'm nearly positive that they used to have more traditional fries at one time but can never find anything online about it.

Anonymous said...

It's interesting how some people are quick to blame crime as a reason for chic FIL a ' s departure. How about Buckhead? Atlantic Station, If they compare that to the crime at Greenbriar? It doesn't compare? More crime have taken place at those places( especially Buckhead) than that mall .

Also let's not forget about January 6th? Yes the intersection did take place at the Whitehouse in Washington DC. The majority of those people who committed that crime wasn't Black?

There is a saying " The Devil that is and The Devil that isn't". I've been going to the Green riar Chic Fil A since it opened and been to Greenbriar at it's best and at it's worst since I was a child. I'm now middle aged and I've never been victimized by crime. However, a cousin of mines was robbed at Lenox Square Mall . Ironically, he's NEVER been victimized by crimes in his low income community.

Though Urban/ Black areas are stereotyped as crime infested,I would be more scared of places like Lenox Square. For one, they're not always honest about their crimes rates and two..most time rogues go where they feel the money is at. Supposedly,Lenox have the
" goods"

Anonymous said...

💯

Anonymous said...

Here we go again, when places are infested with low income minorities and crime the businesses close or rapidly decline.

Anonymous said...

Re: Chick-Fil-A fries. I worked at CFA (@ Gwinnett Place) in the late 80s to early 90s, and we only served Waffle fries. And I only remember ordering the waffle fries when I would eat there before I became an employee. So if they did have another type, the switch was made before the mid-80s.

Anonymous said...

It’s the gangs at Lenox/Buckhead responsible for 99% of the crime and sadly they are almost entirely Black. This is just a fact and until we of all backgrounds work together to solve it, we will be in a viscous cycle. If I were black (and a parent), I would especially be fighting against gangs trying to recruit my child.

Anonymous said...

You are making an assumption here. That’s what has caused all the deaths over the past few years, assumptions about what someone is doing because of their race, or assumptions that all crime is committed by someone because of their race. Ultimately if you don’t feel safe at Lenox, don’t go. They aren’t hurting for money to be spent there. Obviously.

Anonymous said...

And here comes the racist commentary. This is why neighborhood owned businesses & people need to be supported. There is a reason this worked in the past.

Anonymous said...

Dog whistles & gas lighting. It's the crime in the area. Throw in urban verbiage to the mix and the racist handbook for comments would be complete.

Anonymous said...

I would definitely my group of friends are looking to empower folks and hopefully we won't have to serve or endure patronage of folks like you!

Anonymous said...

Thank you! Your commentary is spot on, but sadly folks that are looking to mask their racism by these comments won't receive it. I'm so glad you noted this.

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