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A Longtime Alpharetta Meat and Three Is Becoming a ‘Cutting Edge’ Restaurant

The 98-year-old Alpha Soda is getting a menu makeover and a name change

Alpha Soda in Alpharetta
Beth McKibben is the editor and staff reporter for Eater Atlanta and has been covering food and cocktails locally and regionally for 12 years.

Longtime Southern restaurant in Alpharetta is going “cutting edge”

Alpharetta meat and three Alpha Soda, the 98-year-old Southern restaurant located on Haynes Bridge Road, is undergoing a makeover that includes changing its name to Alpha Soda Kitchen & Bar and doing away with breakfast, according to the AJC. It reopens in October. The restaurant is known for reasonably priced classic Southern fare like country fried steak and a starchy vegetable plate. Owner Michael Clarke purchased the entire strip mall in which Alpha Soda is located — a half-mile from the new mixed-use complex Alpharetta City Center — and tasked chef Daniel Marteny (Mill Kitchen & Bar in Roswell) with creating “cutting-edge” food with “farm-to-fork Southern fusion.” Does this mean mac n’ cheese won’t be considered a vegetable here anymore? Marteny will also run Trinity BBQ in the complex. Alpha Soda is (or was) one of the few old-time Southern restaurants left in the northern suburbs. In recent years, Alpha Soda and its food were a breath of fresh air in a city that’s gone from a sleepy farming community to an Atlanta suburb bursting at the seams with McMansions, luxury cars, and Starbucks. [AJC]

Popsicles at Forsyth County’s Halycon complex

Popsicle shop Popbar is on board at the food hall for Forsyth County mega-development Halycon at 1400 McFarland Parkway, What Now Atlanta reports. The 540-square-foot shop is located off the green space and will serve 40 flavors of yogurt pops, gelato, and sorbet. Like so many other overly ambitious mixed-use complex construction timelines, Halycon predicted tenants would begin opening in 2018. That timeframe has now shifted to March 2019. Popbar joins food stalls like Gu’s Dumplings and Butcher & Brew in the market. [WNA]

19,000-square-feet of booze

A beverage superstore called Local Vine is now open at 3101 Cobb Parkway in Parkway Pointe. The 19,000-square-foot store offers over 7,000 wines, 5,000 spirits, and 2,000 beers along with a climate-controlled wine cellar and “Atlanta’s largest beer cooler.” [Official]