Don’t Call It a Food Hall, But Sweet Octopus Features Several Restaurants Under One Roof

Remember Sweet Octopus, the Thai street food restaurant owned by Thai and Sushi EAV’s Paul Yuwachit opening in October at Duluth’s Parsons Alley? The menu now includes poke, ramen, and “Asian empanadas”. And, it’s apparently not technically a mini food hall, as Eater Atlanta and others intitially reported.

A representative for Sweet Octopus returned Eater’s earlier request for clarification on the food hall confusion saying, “Our concept has continuously evolved. All of this will be under one name, which is Sweet Octopus. So, kind of like a food hall but with just one vendor that has a lot of options.”

While Sweet Octopus channels a food hall-like vibe, it is indeed just a 100-seat, counter-serve restaurant. The first floor of the nearly 4,000-square-foot, two-story establishment serves Thai street food from Yuwachit and a “small menu with items from Poke Burri and Lifting Noodles Ramen”, owned by Seven Chan and Ken Yu.

Poke Burri, Lifting Noodles, and Yuwachit’s Thai food offerings operate from a shared kitchen and people can order from all three in one location.

The previously announced bubble tea bar still resides on the second floor with the addition of a “quick-serve” pastry and empanada bar.

Yuwachit, who also owns Donkey Mexican Bar and Grill in Sandy Springs, opened Thai and Sushi EAV in East Atlanta Village in 2001.

Chan and Yu opened their first outposts of Poke Burri and Lifting Noodles Ramen inside EAV’s We Suki Suki Global Grub Collective. Poke Burri expands to Denver, Detroit, Tampa, Houston, and Nashville over the next year.

New locations of Poke Burri and Lifting Noodles Ramen will open at the Battery’s forthcoming Asian food hall called Ph’east in Cobb County this fall. The hall also includes a Kung Fu Tea stall, the Taps bar serving beer, wine, sake, and cocktails, and a second, smaller location of the Laotian restaurant Snackboxe Bistro, owned by Eater Atlanta 2018 Chef of the Year winner, Thip Athakhanh.

Update, 2 p.m., September 5, 2019: This story has been updated to clarify that Sweet Octopus is a counter-serve restaurant and not a mini Asian food hall.

3559 West Lawrenceville Street, Suite 600, Duluth.

• Duluth Gains a Thai Street Food Restaurant and Bubble Tea Bar This Summer [EATL]
• Sweet Octopus to showcase 5 concepts as Duluth’s first Asian food hall [ABC/Paywall]
• All Duluth dining coverage [EATL]
• Lao Restaurant Snackboxe Bistro Confirms It’s Opening at Battery Atlanta’s New Food Hall [EATL]