Bits & Bites

Tre Vele opened Monday September 20 at City Walk in Sandy Springs.  The new Italian restaurant, bar, and market spans about 5,600 square feet and includes a rooftop patio.  The restaurant, opened by brothers Ryan and Jonathan Akly replaces Three Sheets, also an Akly concept.  The brothers collaborated with chef/partner Ian Winslade of  their Mission + Market restaurant in Buckhead to create the new Sandy Springs eatery.  Executive Chef Giancarlo Ruiz (formerly of Storico Fresco) was recruited to helm the kitchen.  Tre Vele’s initial hours for dinner are Monday through Thursday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday through Saturday 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Tre Vele plans to add lunch and brunch shortly after opening.  The café and retail hours are scheduled to be Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., with plans to offer lunch to-go options alongside the retail offerings.

[UPDATE] Publix, Sprouts and Lidl Have More Than Two Dozen Stores in Metro Atlanta Pipeline

Despite the headwinds facing many retailers, grocers seem to be among the most active in metro Atlanta with an immediate pipeline of nearly 30 new stores.  The main players involved in the upcoming openings are Publix and Lidl, which together account for at least 24 new stores.  

[UPDATE] Public Kitchen Out, Agency In at Phipps Plaza in Buckhead

Daniel Reed Hospitality will be opening Agency socialthèque this coming Friday January 4.  The new concept is replacing Public Kitchen, the group's farm-to-table eatery, in the same space.  Public Kitchen, which opened in a portion of the former Twist space late this past February, is a beautiful mid-century modern inspired restaurant, the sibling of the group's flagship Savannah eatery with the same name.  

Bits & Bites

Crafthall Kitchen, the new food concept launched this past April in Sandy Springs, has closed temporarily.  The restaurant, which has gone through a number of significant changes since inception, announced via their Facebook page on November 14 that "We are closing today and until further notice for training and reorganizing!"  Interestingly, the announcement came just one day after the restaurant announced it was launching a new rewards program with Como Sense.   A follow up message was posted on Sunday the 18 that said in part "we are doing an overhaul on our management and will be closed for awhile to work everything out. We are hoping to open up again soon."  The actual restaurant says nothing about the closure so potential patrons would be left assuming the restaurant is closed for good.  ToNeTo Atlanta reached out to founder Jennifer Rotondo, who declined to provide any comment on the situation or a timeline.  Launched as a glorified KenTacoHut [Kentucky Fried Chicken / Taco Bell / Pizza Hut], with four separate concepts under one roof, the restaurant became unified by a single menu in July.  The restaurant also later renovated and did away with its self-ordering kiosks, replacing them with a more traditional point of sale (POS) system.  The restaurant catered to both healthy diners and those seeking gluten-free options and seemed to have been well received overall with an cumulative four star rating on Yelp.com.  That said, many of the restaurant's recent five star reviews came after the restaurant hosted a Yelp event where it provided free food to attendees.  

[EXCLUSIVE] Kohl's Plans to Do More With Less, Reducing Size of Most Atlanta Area Stores

Kohl's has retained Atlanta's The Shopping Center Group to market a number of junior anchor boxes created by the planned downsizing of over a dozen of the chain's department stores in metro Atlanta.  The brokerage firm is marketing the spaces as "Prime Retail Space."  The move comes as the Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based retailer looks to "right size" its stores to better compete in today's challenging retail climate.  The retailer announced the "rightsizing" plan last August and plans to reduce the size of about 500 of the chain's 1,100+ stores. 

A typical Kohl's store 

Bits & Bites

Designer jeweler boutique Mayors will relocate next spring from their current first floor space near Victoria's Secret to a new space near Starbucks at the cusp of the Lenox Luxury Wing.  The store will assume both the former Bvlgari boutique as well as a portion of the former Fendi boutique. (Bvlgari left the market, while Fendi relocated and expanded to the Luxury Wing).  French cosmetics and skincare retailer L'Occitane will occupy the remaining portion of the Fendi space, planning to relocate back to Lenox Square from The Shops Buckhead Atlanta.  The new Mayors store will measure 3,224 square feet, larger than the company's current 2,993 square foot space.  The new store, which is slated to include a Rolex boutique, will have separate entrances for the store and the luxe timepiece brand.    

Bits & Bites

A new quick-serve restaurant called Suri Mediterranean Grill opened Tuesday in the food court of Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody.  The restaurant, which replaced Subway, features classic Medterranean fare such as fattoush salad, falafel and shawarma.  Although Great Wraps Grill continues to operate in the mall, for some, Suri may fill the void  left when longtime Mediterranean mall eatery Hovan Gourmet closed in early 2013 after 35 years.  Hovan later reopened in Old Five Points shopping center in Brookhaven.   

Bits & Bites

Smoothie and juice joint dtox plans to open its third overall location in the coming weeks at the corner of Virginia Avenue and North Highland Avenue in Virginia Highland.  Dtox will open in the former Judith Bright space [they previously expanded and relocated to a space nearby], between Taco Cowboy and Callie's Hot Little Biscuit.  Dtox currently operates locations in Buckhead Court in Buckhead and at Westside Provisions District on the Westside.  

Bits & Bites

Goldberg's Bagel Company & Deli plans to open its latest location today at The Battery Atlanta at SunTrust Park.  The new restaurant will be the Atlanta-based group's seventh metro location and ninth overall, with two locations in Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.  

Bits & Bites

Taste of Atlanta will celebrate its 16th year, this time in a new home: Historic Fourth Ward Park.  The popular restaurant festival will include "tastes" from many established Atlanta area restaurants, as well as a number of new or upcoming restaurants such as Bulla, CO, Donetto, Golden Eagle, Hawkers, Hattie B's Hot Chicken, Muchacho, Ponko Chicken, Todd English Tavern, Wade's and more! General admission tickets are $25 and can be purchased here. 

Bits & Bites

Farm Burger  plans to open alongside Your Pie at The George on Memorial Drive in Grant Park. This will mark Farm Burger's fourth location in Georgia and tenth overall. George Frangos, Farm Burger's founder and owner, tells me that the Grant Park restaurant will be about 1,800 square feet, similar in size to the company's Decatur outpost. Frangos anticipates that the new restaurant will open by the end of the year.  In addition to the Grant Park Farm Burger, Frangos expects to open two other locations this coming June/July in Birmingham and Memphis.  The Birmingham location will be on the city's southside in a redevelopment of the the old Waite's Building at the corner of 7th Avenue South and Richard Arrington Junior Boulevard.   In Memphis, Farm Burger will open at Crosstown Concourse, a Ponce City Market-like redevelopment of a former Sears property originally built in 1927.  The previously announced satellite Farm Burger location within Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta is expected to open this summer with Frangos hinting at another Farm Burger location next year in the greater metro Atlanta area.  This past December, Georgia Oak Partners, LLC, made an undisclosed investment in Farm Burger to fuel the restaurant's continued growth.  Georgia Oak previously invested in Your Pie, but their franchised location in The George was reportedly coincidental and not planned or arranged in partnership with Farm Burger, a non- franchised model.      

Bits & Bites

Petite Violette, the French restaurant created from the recent merging of Petite Auberge and Violette recently lost Stephanie Belcher, longtime manager and owner of Violette. Ms. Belcher was 67 and died suddenly on March 13th after recovering from an illness and showing signs of improving.  

    

"In lieu of flowers, Stephanie's family requests donations be made to the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center's Scholarship Program, in Stephanie's name. Go to Callanwolde.org, click on "giving", then on "donate" and "donate here". Then, specify that this is for the scholarship program. Many thanks in advance for honoring Stephanie." 

Bits & Bites

Tasty China is opening a second Smyrna area location.  The popular  Szechuan eatery started by respected chef Peter Chang will open a new location in Taylor Square in the 1800 block of Atlanta Road in "about a month." The existing Tasty China is on Franklin Road in Marietta. Tasty China closed its Sandy Springs location on Powers Ferry Road in 2014.  (It later became Ray's Rio Bravo, a reboot of the popular 90s Tex-Mex chain, but it, too, closed last month.)   

Bonus Bits & Bites

4Rivers Smokehouse sponsored a post on facebook earlier this week announcing that construction of their first Atlanta area restaurant is underway.  Last year, I was first to report the restaurant's plans to open in the former fire station No. 16, a two story building on Marietta Street, that dates to 1920.  There is still no word on when the restaurant is expected to open, other than it will be before the end of the year.