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A car crashed through the front of Hodgepodge Coffeehouse & Gallery on Moreland Avenue in East Atlanta late Saturday night. Hodgepodge owner Krystle Rodriguez tells Eater Atlanta the driver apparently swerved into the parking lot to avoid hitting another car which had pulled out in front of it. The car then lost control and smashed through the front wall into the shop’s “living room”. No one was seriously injured.
Rodriguez arrived on the scene within ten minutes of the accident and posted a photo of the car still inside the shop. It’s unclear how fast the female driver was going or what she was charged with, however, it’s not uncommon for cars to travel at high rates of speed down Moreland.
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Hodgepodge was only closed for an hour and a half prior to the accident. Artist Kayleen Scott had also been working outside on the shop’s new front mural a few hours before the incident. Scott’s mural replaces artist Ray Geier’s (Squishiepuss) pink French bulldog following numerous allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against him by several women. The popular East Atlanta coffee shop serves as a gallery, featuring local artists inside and on the exterior of the building.
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The shop plans to continue operating as usual until repairs begin on the lounge area. Rodriguez says the building is structurally sound and there are tarps throughout the damaged portion.
“For now we’re staying open! Once build-out starts, we may need to close but, we won’t know until we get there,” Rodriguez says. “The best way to help us is to keep coming in! We’re not quite sure what navigating all of this is going to look like, but community support will make it a whole lot easier.”
Eater Atlanta is working to gather further details on the accident.
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Rodriguez plans to open a second, 900-square-foot shop a little over a mile up the road at 1 Moreland Avenue in Reynoldstown by the end of February or early March. It will act more as a grab-and-go “Hodgepodge express” with a limited food menu. A third Hodgepodge is planned for the Summerhill neighborhood west of Grant Park in a new building set to rise near Hank Aaron Drive. Construction has yet to begin on the building, pushing the opening of that location to the end of 2020.
