Tuesday, January 21, 2025

[ALERT] Award Winning West Midtown Vietnamese Restaurant Le Fat Has Closed

It seems that Le Fat in West Midtown has permanently closed.  The Vietnamese restaurant from chef Guy Wong and business partner Mike Blum opened in March 2015 in the street level retail of the 935M apartment community at 935 Marietta Street.   

The two partners sold Le Fat to outside investors in late 2019 so that the pair could focus on Ruby Chow, their then upcoming Asian Fusion eatery near Ponce City Market.

When Le Fat opened, it replaced fast-casual eatery Yum Bunz, also from Wong and Blum, a concept that was perhaps ahead of its time and lasted less than a year.  Le Fat, however, with a menu inspired by Vietnam's French colonial era, proved quite popular and was named by Atlanta Magazine as one of Atlanta's "75 Best Restaurants" in 2019.  

Under its new ownership, the restaurant began to implement tweaks to its menu - including the addition of Szechuan and Cantonese dishes - in early 2020  and despite the pandemic, things seemed to be just fine at the restaurant until this past spring.  

On May 19, 2024, Le Fat posted to its official Instagram page that it was "temporarily closed" due to "unforeseen circumstances" but that they would "be open as soon as possible."  

A follow up post on May 25 indicated they were still "TEMPORARILY closed due to facility issues outside of our control" but did not indicate what the issues were or when they'd reopen.  The restaurant responded to several comments shortly after its second post but has been radio silent since late May.  

There have been no additional updates, but the restaurant is marked "permanently closed" on Google.  An employee at the 935M apartments also confirmed that Le Fat was closed permanently but could not elaborate as to what caused its closure.  

Strangely, an analysis of Le Fat's recent Google reviews suggests that despite being closed for months, would-be diners have been able to secure reservations at the restaurant only to arrive - after paying for parking - to the unwelcome sight of a vacant restaurant.  Assuming that this had to have been a glitch in the system and surely long since remedied, we were shocked to have been able to secure a reservation on OpenTable for a 7 pm reservation on January 20!  We have since flagged this to OpenTable (and reservations are no longer available) but can you imagine if we had not, and this empty restaurant were to be fully booked for Valentine's Day next month?  

We visited the restaurant Tuesday and noticed a cleaning crew onsite but no signage regarding the closure.  

Interestingly, we could find no listing marketing the space for lease although we did find listings for the former Vibe Ride indoor cycling studio and the current Blue Seafood House, both at 935M.  

Are you surprised to learn that Le Fat has closed in West Midtown?  Did you have a reservation for Le Fat and drove over only to find it closed?  Do you know why the restaurant closed?

Please share your thoughts below.   

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hate this loss and really regretting not patronizing more. Those clay pot dishes were wonderful

Anonymous said...

I lived above Le Fat for three years and picked up food at least once a week—it’s an absolute gem of a restaurant. That said, I probably wouldn’t have tried it if I hadn’t lived there, given the parking situation. Unfortunately, crime in the area, especially on this block and within the building, increased significantly during my time there (2021–2024). On top of that, my rent went up by nearly $1,000 over three lease renewals. Similarly to myself, the restaurant likely found more reasons to leave than to stay. We will miss you Le fat

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