One of metro Atlanta's original locations of MOD Pizza has closed. The pizza shop, located in Peachtree Station in Chamblee, closed permanently in recent days after a little more than five years in business.
The space was originally leased to Tokyo Belly, a Japanese eatery from the owners of The One Sushi+ in Brookhaven, but the Asian restaurant pulled out before ever opening. MOD opened in August 2018.
ToNeTo Atlanta had visited the Chamblee MOD several times but noted that in recent visits, service had noticeably declined and the restaurant was often out of main menu ingredients. The restaurant had gone through a significant overhaul in its staff and was occasionally closed randomly, reportedly due to staff simply not showing up.
MOD, which stands for "made on demand," was founded in Seattle in 2008, and today includes about 540 locations across 28 states. Southern Pie, LLC, a franchise group led by Robbie Hill and his daughter Kimberly Hill Hayden, are owners of MOD stores in Georgia and Alabama. Southern Pie's first MOD opened in 2017 in Kennesaw Marketplace in Kennesaw and was soon followed by additional locations in Decatur, Dawsonville, Sandy Springs, and Chamblee. Subsequent locations later opened in East Cobb, Buford, Cumming and Augusta.
MOD and Pasadena, California-based Blaze are the two largest players in the "create your own" quick-serve pizza industry, each with multiple locations in Georgia. For its part, Blaze has four locations in metro Atlanta plus additional units in Valdosta and Brunswick. The chain has not closed any locations in Georgia, but the metro Atlanta units were sold last year to another group by original franchisee Carl Hoover.
Collectively MOD and Blaze have seen far more success than smaller players in the same pizza space. Atlanta-based Uncle Maddio's Pizza as well as national chains Pieology, Pie Five and 1000 Degrees Pizza have all closed most or all of their local units. Your Pie, another Atlanta-based franchise, has had mixed success with several locations still open, but failed locations in Dunwoody, Buckhead & Tucker, among others.
Are you surprised to hear of MOD Pizza's closure in Chamblee? What is your favorite quick-serve pizza eatery? What would you like to see open in place of MOD Pizza in Chamblee?
Please share your thoughts below.
5 comments:
Personally, I didn’t care for MOD Pizza’s crust. I really liked Your Pie much better. Since Your Pie locations closed, I am not surprised to hear this MOD location close either.
It would be nice for Blaze to go in there. I liked MOD, but just bad franchisees I assume. No management ot even trying at that location
I like MOD better than Blaze but both are OK. That shopping center was a nightmare to park. They placed much of their paking in a lot at the north end of the center but no one wanted to park there and walk 10 minutes to get to MOD.
Really bad management. Staff didn't give a F***. It was closed the last time I was there in December with a sign on the door that said no staff showed up..sorry!
Good pizza, i think they had staffing issues. Hopefully an Irish pub goes in, those always do well.
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