Chicago's Steak and Seafood is slated to close May 31 after about 36 years in business. Currently located in the Publix at Shallowford shopping center - 4401 Shallowford Road - the upscale restaurant first opened in July 1991 and at one point had two locations. The restaurant occupies a 5,311 square foot endcap space in the center at the corner of Shallowford and Johnson Ferry Roads near where Roswell meets East Cobb.
Chicago's received an "unsatisfactory" score of 69 in a March 4 inspection by the Cobb and Douglas health department. Inspectors cited Chicago’s for several violations, including improper food storage issues, such as holding some ready-to-eat foods for longer than seven days and not having proper procedures for discarding certain foods. The restaurant scored a better, but certainly not stellar, 89 in a follow up inspection a week later.
Some locals believe the restaurant was unable to recover from its poor health score while others simply assume the new owners opted not to renew their lease given the restaurant's downward trajectory in recent years.
A second location was located in Willow Springs (2500 Old Alabama Road) in Roswell, but it closed about twenty years ago, according to resident Roswell restaurant expert Joe Duffy. The former Chicago's space is today occupied by an outpost of Bambinelli's Italian Restaurant.
The East Cobb area has been hit hard by restaurant closures as of late with La Madeleine having closed May 22 in Providence Square and Mirko Pasta closing a few days prior in nearby Merchants Walk.
Tuesday brought news that we knew was coming at some point with the announcement that Reunion: Kitchen and Bar is closing as of June 7, with plans to "relocate" to an unspecified location at some point in the future. ToNeTo Atlanta observed a sales listing in late April advertising an "exceptional second generation turnkey restaurant" opportunity in East Cobb that was very clearly the Reunion space. It's closure now suggests it has been leased to a new operator.
The 4,550 square foot restaurant opened at The Market Plaza - 1255 Johnson Ferry Road - in April 2024. The restaurant, owned by Ilene Kapper Oxman, was originally slated to be called "1255 Social," but a ownership and direction change took place before opening that led to the name change. In a social media post Tuesday, ownership cited an increase in rent and operating costs as the primary factors leading to the closure. Before Reunion, Red Sky Tapas and Bar, another locally owned restaurant, operated from the same space for 14 years before selling to Oxman in 2022.
This article has been updated to reflect that Zwolak sold Chicago's in 2022. We apologize for the inaccuracy of the original reporting.
What would you like to see open in place of Chicago's or Reunion? Are you surprised by all the turnover in East Cobb? What kind of restaurants do you think are needed most in East Cobb?
Please share your thoughts below.
33 comments:
Any restaurant that takes the health and well being of its patrons seriously.
I know they used to have a location in West Cobb on Whitlock Avenue, and I’m pretty sure they had a location in Sandy Springs just OTP. We enjoyed their live music. Danny, who used to play at the West Cobb location, can now be seen on the weekends at Brookwood Grill in Roswell.
I've lived in east Cobb for 20'years and I've always wonders wht we can't seem to support higher end restaurants? Some spaces have been empty for years !
It's sad that East Cobb is loosing another restaurant. Hopefully a better restaurant will take its place and not a ghetto restaurant.
It’s “losing”
Hi! Bartender Krystle from Chicago's here. This article is moderately sensationalized. Par for the course with the media these days. Chicago's closing has almost nothing to do with the most recent health score and almost everything to do with the current economy, poor investments, rising rent and social media doing what it does best.... feeding the rumor mill.
No matter what, the staff at Chicagos is grateful for the longevity, loyalty and loving community it has served under all ownerships these pastb35+ years. Please don't punish the hard working folks behind the scenes for the sake of gossip...
Much love from the speakeasy, the kitchen and the dining room.
Hi! Bartender Krystle from Chicago's here. This article is moderately sensationalized. Par for the course with the media these days. Chicago's closing has almost nothing to do with the most recent health score and almost everything to do with the current economy, poor investments, rising rent and social media doing what it does best.... feeding the rumor mill.
No matter what, the staff at Chicagos is grateful for the longevity, loyalty and loving community it has served under all ownerships these pastb35+ years. Please don't punish the hard working folks behind the scenes for the sake of gossip...
Much love from the speakeasy, the kitchen and the dining room.
What exactly is a “ghetto” restaurant?
The article is incorrect on who the current owners are.
This is Mark Zwolak replying. I am NOT the current owner as mentioned in this article. I sold the restaurant in 2022. You should verify facts before publishing articles.
This article is false. Mark Zwolak is not the current owner as stated in this article. It was sold in 2022. Get your facts straight before you publish an article.
Ghetto restaurant ? What’s that ?
Maybe East Cobb should try "tightening" the next restaurant.
Go back and re-read.
"The restaurant was sold in June 2017 to Mark Zwolak and Connor Murray who in turn sold it in October 2022 to Festus Okoh. "
We used to go there every weekend in the 90's but when Chef Jackie left to open his own place in Cartersville, the food went downhill
Krystle and you Kyle will be missed. Hopefully we will see you before you close. Please keep in contact and let us know where you’re going. We loved sitting in the Speakeasy listening to the music and having a nice dinner. Y’all served some of the best food in East Cobb.
Obviously the article has been updated after their glaring error was called out.
@7:15 they mean what you think they mean. Same tone here as always.
Krystle I’m so sorry about the loss of your employment. It’s because of the horrible economic policies of sleepy joe Biden that you and millions of other Americans are being forced to suffer. Give president Donald j trump time and a chance to fix this economy. He is laser focused on lowering prices for all Americans. And I for one would like to thank him for all that he does for us.
You win funniest comment of the year!!
@1:48 PM: you can't be serious
Suck it libs. Just because you have TDS doesn’t mean 99.999% of the world agrees with you. Pretty much all Americans are blown away by the job DJT is doing. Were the hottest country in the world right now
@ 1:48, I have news for you. Donald Trump doesn't care about the economy. He is doing nothing to lower prices, he is actually doing just the opposite. I voted for the clown, just to vote against the bigger clown he was running against. My prayer is that for 2028, both parties will run candidates who actually have common sense and zero ego. But as the song goes, the fate of all mankind is in the hands of fools.
It's really too bad that was a great place to go that was right down the street
Hottest country because of global warming.
@11:15am - What exactly do you want them to suck? What is “it?”
They can suck on their woke liberal policies that have destroyed this country. DJT had the 2020 election stolen from him so you libs could implement your horrible ideas. And now president Trump is exhausting himself and putting his life at risk to fix the damage. Pwned.
To the DJT lover, the phrase TDS doesn’t have teeth anymore, nobody cares….
Krystle,
Sorry for your job loss.
Poor excuted management including the health department score is a reason not to visit any food establishment.
Restaurants isva hard business to establish an maintain.
Says 'ghetto' but you can't even spell correctly lol
Please suggest a restaurant that has great ribs like Chicago’s. Sad, they have been a great neighborhood restaurant
Such a great neighborhood restaurant/bar all these years. Please advise where to get ribs like they had~we missed Mark’s friendly face. Wasn’t the same
We use to go quite often. Then something happened when the new owners took over. Food was not nearly as great and was a lot more expensive to eat there. I have noticed how really expensive it is to eat out now everywhere. From fast foods to a white tablecloth place Just took my hubby out for his birthday and the bill was over 200. Dollars with gratuity added for two. Going out to eat now anywhere is becoming something you give a serious second thought about.
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