Big Bad Breakfast (BBB), a chain growing across the southeast, has closed its first and only location in Georgia. The Atlanta Big Bad Breakfast opened November 4, 2025 and closed as of the close of normal business on July 15. The chain did not provide a reason for the closure, but confirmed it in an Instagram post Wednesday evening.
James Beard award-winning chef John Currence opened the first BBB in Oxford, Mississippi in 2008. A second location came to Birmingham in 2013. Through a partnership with Nashville-based Fresh Hospitality, Currence has expanded the brand to 29 28 locations across nine eight states, with sixteen between the group's top markets of Tennessee and Alabama.
Currence drew on his New Orleans upbringing with a menu that features assorted Cajun staples like Shrimp N Grits, a Shrimp Poboy, an Oyster Poboy, and a "Low Country Skillet" with two eggs scrambled, shrimp, andouille, cheddar cheese, onions, peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes.
The restaurant's closure Wednesday means it was in business for less than nine months! Fellow new-to-market restaurant Torchy's Tacos closed this past February at the trendy West Midtown Star Metals project after about seventeen months in business. Wagamamma, another first to market restaurant, closed in January 2024, also at Star Metals, and also after less than two years in business.
Despite the closures, several breakfast options remain along or close to Howell Mill Road, including Waffle House, Maple Street Biscuit Company, Thumbs Up Diner, and Flying Biscuit Cafe in Howell Mill Village.
Did you ever go to Big Bad Breakfast? Why do you think Big Bad Breakfast failed to find success on Howell Mill Road? What is your favorite breakfast spot in Atlanta?
Please share your thoughts below.
35 comments:
We accidentally found the place the week it opened. We enjoyed it and thought it was really good but it was easy to drive past it and not spot it. I don’t think it was promoted very well. Such a shame it closed so soon
Dumbassed name, no wonder
I'd have to guess that the constant traffic congestion and gridlock that happens pretty much all day had a lot to do with it.
I loved Big Bad Breakfast. The selection of food was different and really good.
I ate at the one in Charleston last year and really liked it. Location perhaps was the failure here?
This is John Currence, founder of BBB. Sadly, we were challenged on a number of fronts, not the least of which was parking. The apartment buildingdirectly behind our location suffered a fire which eliminated access to that parking for our guests and hurt immensely. Our landlord group did everything they could to work with us to deal with that burden, but at the end of it all, we just were not able to get over the hump to success. The people of Atlanta who came regularly and discovered us, in spite of the challenges, could not have been more kind or welcoming. This is not the end for BBB in ATL. We will be back at some point in the future. In spite of what one person may think about our name, (it has an origin story most people love) the brand has been extraordinarily successful and we know we will ultimately find our home in The A!! Thank you for the kind words and support.
Thank you. We loved the space and being in. ATL. WE will be back!!!
Love the location on 30a! Keep hope alive!
What should they have called it instead?
Just curious, what does ur site offer that RoughDraft and/or Eater Atlanta doesn't already offer???
This comment comes off as VERY butthurt.
Eli knows the Atlanta market better than the other sites. Also the comments here are much less woke than you'd find elsewhere.
Thanks for checking in with the background. I dined at the Oxford location and though it was excellent. The employees did a good job of handling the crowds too as it is a mob scene on game weekends! Good luck on future sites in Atlanta, but please don't call it "The A" or "The ATL."
Cumming, GA would be a fantastic area for BBB to have a location
I get it, anything with "Bad" in its name has an automatic, 'bad' connotation.
or whatnow?
Snarky, told-you-so commentary on all restaurant and retail closures, particularly those on westside or at Phipps.
Thank you for all that you do Eli. You are a true treasure
This is John Currence. The post above is fake. We closed because we, like countless others before us, believed in a broker that it was a good location while they laughed all the way to the bank.
“Butthurt”…??? Cause they don’t know how to do it?
At 11:11, butthurt cause it’s obviously the owner of the business that closed. Same writing style as their other comment.
Emory Point has many open spaces and we are in need of a solid bfast spot! AND easy parking.
This is Suzy Trivette. We are still open and have lots of batter for pancakes ready for you. Hot and fresh. Come and get it! Thanks!
This is a successful business trying to open in what is increasingly an unsuccessful town. They'll need to open somewhere like Athens or Dawsonville or out there somewhere to have a shot at making it. Atlanta is being sold to out of towners as something that it just no longer is.
We ate there twice the food was good but the staff lacked training and operational systems, the working areas always looked like a mess going on. Worst part is who picks a location with three parking spaces. I would be surprised if anything could make it in this location
Agreed. Solid idea to have the word BAD in the name of a restaurant where it describes the food.
Well it shouldn't take a consultant to know that that was a bad location. You guys should have consulted with Eli. After all, Eli is Yiddish for Big Bad Real Estate Consultant..........I think.
Yes Atlanta is very unsuccessful. Everything will likely be closing up soon.
Lol…some fanny smoochin goin in there.
Folks, let me tell you, Big Bad Breakfast on Howell Mill Road, GREAT place, tremendous eggs, everybody said so. And it closed. Nine months! Not even a year, okay? But this is what WINNING looks like, believe me. The economy is so strong, so powerful, that restaurants are just closing left and right because nobody needs breakfast anymore, they're too rich, they're eating at home on their gold plates with their own personal chefs doing the cooking.
And the gas prices? Lowest EVER. Rock bottom. So low you could drive from Atlanta to Oxford, Mississippi and back a thousand times and still have money left over, except there's nowhere to eat because they all shut down. That's how good it is.
West Egg, gone. Torchy's, gone. Wagamamma, gone, and the last one, honestly nobody could spell it anyway. Superica, Damsel, Boxcar Betty's, all of them, GONE. Is it the greatest breakfast massacre in history? A lot of people are saying that. The best people. So much winning you're gonna get sick of the shrimp n grits, except you can't, because it's closed.
Don't forget that the Dumocrats cheated in the 2020 election! Very sad!
Shoot your shot.
Seek mental health - STAT!
Call your Shrink.
Ask him to "up" your prescriptions.
Emory Point needs lunch, not breakfast, now that CDC is back to full RTO. Breakfast is the wrong market there though.
For transparency. Former disgruntled employee here. This place failed because it was toxic as hell. A 40-year-old gets his first serving Job at this location. And is appointed A head server of sorts in less than a month. If you try to give the “owner” Any sort of feedback. He has a Bitch fit and stands over you dogging like a bitch. and says that if you don’t like the way shit is run there You don’t have to work there. That area is a great location high foot traffic. And Some successful people in the area. Atlanta has its Flaws But don’t blame the beautiful city for your inability to succeed or adapt to it. When you’re coming into our market.
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