Chef Nick Leahy Closes His Brookwood Hills Restaurant After Just Nine Months

Chef Nick Leahy’s latest restaurant the Usual closed last weekend after just nine months in the Brookwood Hills neighborhood.

A source with knowledge of the situation says the restaurant’s final service took place November 12, with a representative for the Usual confirming the closure. No reason was provided, other than “it was a mutual decision with the building owners to close”, the representative tells Eater.

Leahy, who also owns Nick’s Westside on Brady Avenue on Atlanta’s westside, opened the Usual in February at the Arya apartment complex across from El Azteca on Peachtree Street, partnering again with Dash Hospitality owner David Abes in the restaurant. The Usual was billed as a casual, family-friendly restaurant serving dishes like burgers, loaded French fries, hanger steak, and seafood and dumplings. The bar offered takes on classic cocktails like the Hemingway daiquiri, Cosmopolitan, Aviation, and French 75.

Following the sale of his former Brookwood Hills restaurant Saltyard in 2018, Leahy and Abes opened Aix and Tin Tin together, the French restaurant and wine bar Leahy transformed into Nick’s Westside in 2020. Leahy sold Saltyard to Lee Schulman, the owner of the Old Vinings Inn, who closed the Brookwood Hills restaurant a year later. The space is now home to Osha Thai Sushi Galleria behind Botica, which took over the former Watershed space on Peachtree.

Anne Laine