Iron Hill Brewery, which entered the Atlanta market in late 2020 with a restaurant in Buckhead and in 2021 added a second location in Dunwoody, will soon close both locations, according to employees at the chain. The restaurants, located in "The Block at Phipps" and Twelve24 are about 7,800 and 7,500 square feet, respectively, and are expected to close in the coming weeks.
The restaurants featured an on-site brewery as well as a diverse food menu with vegetarian and "gluten-friendly" options and a weekend brunch menu.
In likely unrelated but still disturbing news, the EEOC sued the chain in late March alleging that management "illegally discriminated against an African American employee when it fired him because of his race and in retaliation for reporting discrimination against women and Hispanic employees." The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) claimed it brought the suit after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.
The restaurant has not commented publicly on the litigation which was filed March 25.
According to the Iron Hill website, they claimed to be "the most award-winning brewery east of the Mississippi."
Iron Hill's Buckhead restaurant (3535 Peachtree Road) occupies a dynamic location at the corner of Peachtree Road and Oak Valley Road, across from Phipps Plaza. The center in which it's located, today known as "The Block at Phipps," debuted in 1999, and until its early 2021 acquisition by Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises in partnership with an Ohio teachers' pension fund, was known as Lenox Marketplace. Real estate sources suggest that the Buckhead location has been quietly marketed for months, suggesting that their struggles have been ongoing.
The chain's Dunwoody restaurant (1224 Hammond Drive) occupies some of the ground-level retail space of the Twelve24 office building. Debuting in August 2021, the restaurant marked the 20th overall for the Wilmington, Delaware-based chain. Including the new Georgia units, the chain currently operates twenty-two locations across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Georgia, and South Carolina.
The Buckhead restaurant is expected to close as of April 30, followed by the Perimeter restaurant as of May 31, according to an employee at the restaurant.
Have you ever been to Iron Hill Brewery? Are you surprised to see Iron Hill Brewery close its Atlanta locations? What would you like to see open in place of either location?
Please share your thoughts below.
22 comments:
Not surprised. Good riddance
Not surprised at all. Good food and happy hour, mediocre beer, off and on service. Too many other choices that are better.
Not surprised at all
Their current ceo Chris Westcott is running them into the ground. The owners going public with the brand was the worst decision they could have made.
I’m not surprised at all.
Food was good, but nothing I wanted to go back for. Beer was as good as I could get at any other craft brewery in town, but it felt more upscale than getting just a beer. Would rather visit a craft brewery and eat from a food truck.
I was in the one near Dunwoody Marta a couple of times recently. Some great beers. I did not eat but the food coming out of the kitchen looked good. The bar staff were friendly and welcoming to this British visitor.
It did strike me as slightly odd that they were in what looked like expensive properties and dependant on the local mall for trade to find them.
Sorry to read the news.
This! Odd pairing of an upscale brewery, doesn’t match the appeal of typical brewery fans.
Buckhead must be the coldest market in the South. It will only get worse with the unchecked crime and nearby office buildings going into default. Terrible city and neighborhood leadership all around.
Love the food and beer! We host an event there regularly. Such a bummer!
Move away then.
That’s not an appropriate comment. Just because legitimate issues are brought up, responding with move away then will never fix the core issues.
The Lenox/Phipps location is just a bad location for anything. Parking feels sketchy, and it’s hard to know where to go to get to the door unless you are on foot. Go up the ramp? Down the ramp? Straight? Dick’s, Target, and Publix work as anchors because they are big and visible. Anything in those smaller retail spaces is too hard to find/access.
It's hard to be surprised when they opened a mediocre brewery in one of the most overpriced and least exciting parts of Atlanta. I can't imagine going to the dangerous malls of Buckhead for a beer when there's 20 other craft breweries doing better stuff in cooler neighborhoods. Dumb business plan from the beginning.
@7:26 PM I live in Alpharetta. No problems with crime and blight up here! Avalon is great a vibe and has no shootings, gang fights or crazy homeless people.
this will be the first of many closures of restaurants in Dunwoody, where too many opened in the Perimeter Mall area and most new places, after the pizzazz of their openings, do not have enough business to sustain them, given the hugely high rents and staffing issues, and way to high prices for their offerings.
Hope something good goes in there
The Buckhead location is a cool space and had potential. The menu at Iron Hill is solid, and I appreciate their beer selection. Will be sad to see them go.
I can't help but wonder if the the seemingly never-ending construction on the exterior of the building didn't contribute to the lack of customers. Driving by, it sometimes had the appearance of not being open.
Both locations always looked to me as though they were twice as large as they needed to be to deliver their concept and become a neighborhood staple. In terms of traffic, I wonder how lazy dog is doing in perimeter. That building also seems to be twice the size they need to deliver the concept, I wonder if they ever get sold out.
I like to go there and wave hundreds in the air because I can show off my richness and no one will rob me.
I’ve been to the Dunwoody location twice. The burgers looked great, but were on the tasteless side. The servers didn’t do their jobs well. With both servers, I had to remind them to bring things that I had earlier asked them for, such as silverware to eat with in the beginning and my check at the end. I thought menu items were generally pricier for comparable menu items at other restaurants or bars within a couple of miles.
If they don’t bring a check after you ask for it, you should just leave. If they don’t want their money for a plain unseasoned burger eaten with no utensils, then don’t pay.
Post a Comment