[EXCLUSIVE] Bartaco to Become Latest Business to Bail on West Midtown

The exodus of restaurants from West Midtown continues with news confirmed this week that Bartaco will shutter its location after about eleven years in business.  The restaurant, located at 969 Marietta Street, opened in July 2014 and is due to close permanently at the end of dinner service on Monday, Cinco de Mayo.  

When Bartaco opened in West Midtown, it was the Greenwich, Connecticut-based company's first in metro Atlanta.  Additional locations were later opened in Chastain Park, Inman Park, and most recently, Vinings.  The West Midtown restaurant was, for a time, one of the company's best performing locations, according to sources close to the chain, but in more recent years, it has maintained its status as one of the chain's lowest volume, worst performing units.  

Barcelona, Bartaco's sibling concept, remains open at nearby Westside Ironworks on Howell Mill Road.  Both concepts are owned by multi-billion dollar private equity firm L Catterton.  

Bartaco's closure comes on the heels of a tidal wave of notable restaurant closures in West Midtown.  

ToNeTo Atlanta has been first to report on the majority of the closures and was first to ring the alarm on the concerning number of closures in the West Midtown market.  

Recent months have brought the closures of breakfast spots including Cultivate, West Egg Cafe, and Snooze an A.M. Eatery, as well as the offering for sale of Pancake Social.    Culinary Dropout, Postino, Humble Pie, Pour Taproom, and Knuckies Hoagies have also recently closed, while Le Fat, Slim+Husky, L.O.A. Social Club, Superica, Damsel, Boxcar Betty's, and Wagamama also closed in West Midtown during 2024.

In 2024 the area did welcome Torchy's Tacos (August) and Lucky Star (December), both at Star Metals (1055 Howell Mill Road), but the nearly 9,000 square foot supper club Eden -  from Fares Kargar's Nooshé Jān Group, also at Star Metals, seems to have stalled since its $2.5M building permit filed last April.  

The majority of the spaces left vacant from recent closures remain empty, save for The Gathering Spot, which is taking over the LOA space, and Cultivate where ToNeTo Atlanta was first to report April 18 that Big Bad Breakfast (BBB) will "break" into the market with their first unit. 

What is your favorite West Midtown restaurant?  What would you like to see fill the vacancies in West Midtown?  What is your favorite neighborhood for restaurants in metro Atlanta?

Please share your thoughts below.