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It’s never easy for a restaurant or bar owner to decide to close their business. Rising rents, labor costs, overzealous developers, poor location, and lack of solid funding often factor into that decision. Here’s a continually updated list of Atlanta restaurant and bar closures for 2020.
Contact Eater Atlanta if you learn of a recent or impending restaurant closure. All tips and information received remain anonymous.
MARCH 2020
The Square Pub — Decatur
The Square Pub closes on Saturday, March 7, after nearly a decade on Decatur Square. Owner Bob Rhein posted the closure news to the Square Pub’s Facebook page, officially confirming the restaurant and bar closes after service March 7. No official reason was given for the closure.
Hudson Grille — Brookhaven
Hudson Grille in Brookhaven is closed, a representative for the Atlanta-based sports bar chain tells Eater. The closure comes just four months after Metrotainment Cafes group owner Jeff Landau shuttered neighboring soccer-centric bar Hudson FC International Sports Pub in the city northeast of Buckhead.
FEBRUARY 2020
Imperial Fez — Buckhead
The Buckhead location of Moroccan restaurant Imperial Fez is closing. However, owners Rafih and Rita Benjelloun are relocating the restaurant known for its lavish decor, five-course dinners, and belly dancing to the Gwinnett County city of Berkeley Lake in March.
Saba — Emory Village
Shane Mixon closed his pasta and sandwich restaurant Saba after relocating it from Oakhurst to Emory Village three years ago. He says the building is “old” and has not been properly maintained. However, Mixon recently opened Paolino Italian Restaurant and Gelateria in Saba’s former space in Oakhurst near Decatur. The menu at Paolino is similar to Saba, but with a greater focus on classic Italian dishes and pastas.
Horseradish Grill — Chastain Park/Buckhead
Longtime Southern restaurant Horseradish Grill closed Saturday, February 15, after 26 years in Chastain Park. Steve Alterman sold the Buckhead institution last year to former Atlas chef Christopher Grossman and general manager Geno Dew. The duo open their all-day neighborhood establishment the Chastain in the renovated space later this summer.
Greens and Gravy and Soul Crab — Westview and College Park
YouTube famous chef and cookbook author Darius Williams abruptly closed all three of his restaurants in Atlanta and Chicago Sunday, February 9. Williams announced the closures of Soul Crab’s College Park and Chicago locations and Greens and Gravy in the Westview neighborhood via Facebook and Instagram.
Hobnob Tavern — Piedmont Heights
After a decade at the corner of Piedmont Road and Monroe Drive, Hobnob Neighborhood Tavern is closing and becoming a questionably named Mexican restaurant and tequila bar called Lazy Llama. The restaurant reopens Wednesday, February 26. Owner Sean Yeremyan cites the impending opening of Hobnob at Atlantic Station and its close proximity to the Midtown location for the revamp of the restaurant.
Graveyard Tavern — East Atlanta Village
The Graveyard Tavern is closing later this month after 15 years in East Atlanta Village. The longtime Glenwood Avenue bar, owned by Dustin Saboorian and Rogue Restaurant Group, likely closes on Saturday, February 22. However, the Basement bar and live music venue beneath the tavern is supposedly not affected by Graveyard’s closure.
Oddbird — Westside/Howell Mill Road
Wednesday, February 12, marks the end of Oddbird, the monthly hot chicken pop-up restaurant at West Egg Cafe. Oddbird began as a weekly “restaurant within a restaurant” five years ago inside the Howell Mill Road breakfast establishment, before scaling back to every second Wednesday of the month.
Meehan’s Public House — Sandy Springs
Irish pub Meehan’s Public House called it quits after 15 years in Sandy Springs on Monday, February 3. The pub was sold to new owners and will eventually become Thos. O’Reilly’s Public House in mid-February.
JANUARY 2020
Holler and Dash — Westside/Howell Mill Road
Holler and Dash, Cracker Barrel’s fast-casual offspring, closed after only two years at the Ironworks complex on Howell Mill Road. This was the lone Georgia outpost for the Southern biscuit-centric chain. Jacksonville-based Maple Street Biscuit Company, which Cracker Barrel acquired last October, replaces all Holler and Dash locations throughout the South this spring.
Rose and Rye — Midtown
Rose and Rye, the fine dining restaurant inside the historic Midtown mansion known as the “castle”, is closed. The closure of the nearly three-year-old restaurant on 15th Street comes after the property owners, MLAC Castle Atlanta LLC, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November and then listed the castle for sale in mid-January.
La Calavera Bakery — Kirkwood
La Calavera, the Mexican pan dulce bakery owned by Eric Arillo and Dale Ralston, closed Wednesday, January 22, after five months at its new Kirkwood location. Arillo and Ralston relocated La Calavera to Memorial Drive from East College Avenue last September, where it had been since 2014. The decision to close apparently came down to lack of professional assistance in the kitchen and the inability to sustain production at the capacity necessary to successfully operate the bakery. Arillo is the lone baker for La Calavera.
4 Rivers Smokehouse — Marietta Street Artery
Florida-based 4 Rivers Smokehouse barbecue restaurant apparently closed in mid-January after only three years on Marietta Street. 4 Rivers opened on the edge of the Georgia Tech campus in July 2017 inside a two-story firehouse dating from 1915.
Cape Dutch — Cheshire Bridge Road
South African steakhouse Cape Dutch, owned by Justin Anthony and True Story Brands, closes after four years on Cheshire Bridge Road on Saturday, January 25. But the restaurant group plans to reopen Cape Dutch in a new Buckhead location later this year. The lease for the building was purchased.
Habanos Cigar Lounge — Castleberry Hill
The owners of Habanos Cigar Lounge in Castleberry Hill sold the Peters Street cigar and cocktail bar in December to Castleberry Hill resident Dennis McKinley (The Original Hot Dog Factory). McKinley plans to open Cru Hemp Lounge there in February, offering Hemp- and CBD-infused hookahs. In addition to hookah, the bar also offers bottle service, a small menu of shared plates, and several cocktails.
Star Community Bar — Little Five Points
Divey live music institution Star Community Bar closed in the wee hours of New Year’s Day after 28 years on Moreland Avenue. But the bare bones bar with its bank vault shrine to Elvis — “Grace Vault” — may not be gone for good. Anna Foote, the outgoing board chair for the Little Five Points CID (community improvement district), tells Eater the building’s owner is in “active negotiations” with a possible new leasee, is “committed” to the bar staying put as a music venue on Moreland, and that his preference would be for it to “remain being called Star Bar.”