The Cockentrice Is Closing at Krog Street Market [Updated]

The Cockentrice, one of the original five "anchor restaurants" at Krog Street Market, is closing its doors for good. The meat-centric concept from Spotted Trotter butcher shop owners Kevin and Megan Ouzts will shutter at the end of dinner service this Saturday.

Megan Ouzts confirmed the decision in a statement provided to Eater Atlanta, describing it as a mix of business and personal.

"We have so much we want to do with The Spotted Trotter, and when we opened the restaurant — like all entrepreneurs with a dream and work ethic that borders on insanity — we assumed that we would just be able to do it all," the statement reads. "But we couldn't. So we had to figure out a way to get Kevin back to The Spotted Trotter. Reflecting on what might have been, we are really sad to close the chapter on The Cockentrice after two amazing years, but we know in our guts that Kevin is meant to be with The Spotted Trotter right now.

"And in keeping with our open book philosophy, nurturing our personal relationship is the other reason we are turning our attention back to The Spotted Trotter. We were touched — thankfully not directly — by several personal tragedies in the past year in our close circle of family and friends. Things like unanticipated divorces and illnesses that make you realize tomorrow is not guaranteed. In April 2017, we will celebrate 10 amazing (yet pretty stressful) years of marriage, and we have realized that we are so lucky to have found each other. But who wants to live a dream if the consequence is not experiencing a single second of it together? There is so much more to life than working seven days a week and saying ‘I love you’ via texts and Post-it Notes. If Team Ouzts is a brand — and we like to think it is — we weren't willing to water that down either."

David Cochran of Paces Properties, the developer behind Krog Street Market, expressed support for the Ouzts’s decision to move on.

"Two years ago, we bet on Kevin and Megan with The Spotted Trotter and The Cockentrice," Cochran said in a statement provided to Eater Atlanta. "We quickly learned that their entrepreneurial spirit, culinary creativity and pride in product was all part of the fire that helped put Krog Street Market on the map. While we are disappointed about the decision to close The Cockentrice, we would bet on them again and appreciate that their family comes first."

A tipster with knowledge of the goings-on at Krog Street Market tells Eater Atlanta a replacement may already be on board and could be introduced "very soon," but a Paces spokesperson could not provide further information: "I am sure between the influx of inquires after this announcement and the list of others who were already interested (but Paces/KSM couldn’t accommodate because we were out of space), Paces will have a plethora of options and move quickly to secure the right fit."

The Cockentrice opened in January 2015, taking up space adjacent to The Spotted Trotter’s Krog Street Market outpost. The Ouzts’s original butcher shop is in Edgewood. The Spotted Trotter and Frankly, the Ouzts’s hot dog stand that opened last October, will remain open in the market.

• All Coverage of The Cockentrice [EATL]
• All Krog Street Market Coverage [EATL]
• All Shutters [EATL]