Bits & Bites

Atlanta's newest Sprouts Farmers Market opened today on Piedmont Avenue in Morningside.  This marks the chain's tenth store in metro Atlanta and second opening this year following last month's opening in East Cobb.  Additional stores are planned for Marietta, Decatur, Duluth and Peachtree City.  

A new Bojangles' restaurant is planned for Woodstock near the corner of Eagle Drive and Putnam Ford Road.  Another new Bojangles' is planned for Kennesaw on Cherokee Street near Shiloh Road.  The property on which the Kennesaw Bojangles' will be built was previously planned to be a Flagstar Bank branch, but it was never built following the bank's 2012 departure from the Atlanta market.  (PNC which bought the existing branches, but apparently opted not to build on the parcel.) 

Also in Woodstock, community members have created a Change.org petition to pressure Publix to release their lease on a former Publix store.  The store, previously the 28,800 square foot anchor of the Shops at Buckhead Crossing shopping center on Towne Lake Parkway, is today occupied by a Tuesday Morning. The Publix, a small prototype location similar to the stores on Shallowford near Chamblee, and on LaVista Road near Lindbergh, was closed at the end of 2009 due to "low sales." Community members seem to believe Tuesday Morning will be willing to relocate elsewhere in the center and are calling on Publix management to release control of the lease, and allow for what they hope would be another grocer to open in the anchor space.  

KFC at Buford Highway and Clairmont Road in Brookhaven recently reopened after a significant interior renovation. 

Captain D's on Church Street in Decatur is also undergoing a full interior and exterior renovation that will bring the location in line with the brand's current updated image.  The restaurant remains open during the renovation, which is expected to continue for a few weeks.  

Waffle House on Chamblee Tucker Road just off I-85 is undergoing an even more significant renovation than its nearby Clairmont Road location.  The Waffle House on Chamblee Tucker is basically being rebuilt from the ground up and should reopen within the next couple of weeks.  

Zaxby's is officially open on Chamblee Tucker Road near Embry Village.  

The Pallookaville Fine Foods Food Truck has been sold. The main restaurant, Pallookaville Fine Foods, which opened in 2013 on North Avondale Road in Avondale Estates, is for sale and is closed until at least March.  A second location, "Pallookaville Junior," was to open in Little 5 Points at 1107 Euclid Avenue, but will not be opening.  (A well placed source indicates that the Avondale restaurant is in fact closed permanently)  

A new Advance Auto Parts is planned for for the 2,700 block of Hamilton Mill Road in Buford.  

Fire & Brimstone Tavern will open later this spring in the former Chadwick’s Tap Room located at 10595 Old Alabama Road in Alpharetta/Roswell. The 6,500 square foot restaurant features seating for 200.  

Press & Grind quietly opened this past weekend in Virginia Highland.  The new healthier concept from The Highland Bakery owner Stacey Eames opened in place of the old Aurora Coffee, near the intersection of North Highland and Virginia Avenues.

The new joint-less Uncle Maddio's logo 

Uncle Maddio's Pizza [Joint] seems to have dropped the "Joint" from its branding. A new logo, devoid of the word "joint," replaced the brand's previous logo on their various social media platforms as well as on their website.  

Auburn, Alabama based Guthrie's has closed its last remaining metro Atlanta location.  The friend chicken restaurant, located in a converted Donatos Pizza on Holcomb Bridge Road in Peachtree Corners, quietly closed sometime in the past month month or so and remains vacant.  Another Guthrie's location closed in 2013 on Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Chamblee and is today a location of Takorea.   According to their website, Guthrie's, which first opened in 1965, is home of the "original golden fried chicken tenders." Although it's quite possible that the nearby opening of a Zaxby's on Jimmy Carter Boulevard contributed to its closure, it's believed that Guthrie's was the inspiration for not only Zaxby's but Raising Cane's, another fried chicken tender joint.  Guthrie's locations continue to operate in Trenton and Ringgold, Georgia as well as a number of other southern markets.  

Oga's, a popular "home cooking" restaurant has closed its location on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Chamblee.   Owner Stanley Kim had been operating the restaurant for over forty years but decided to call it quits and sold the property.  The family-style diner will soon be demolished and will be incorporated into a future Hennessy Automobile Companies development. Hennessy paid $1.26 million for the property located at the corner of Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and North Peachtree Road.   Another Oga's location remains open on Windy Hill Road in Smyrna.  

Rising Roll has closed its location on Northside Drive in the Berkeley Heights shopping center with plans to reopen next month in Atlantic Station.  The shop closed recently, and according to the Rising Roll website, continues to offer catering services during the transition.