Monday, November 28, 2011
Restaurants One of the city's best to close
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 10:30 AM
I promised not to reveal the restaurant's name at this time. The closing won't take place for a few months and will be formally announced later this month.
Why the closing? It's the economy, of course. "It's so hard to make a living in this business now," he said, "that you can end up hating it."
In order to bring in diners, he said, restaurants have to offer half-price coupons, special menus and other incentives. "Meanwhile," he said, "Clark Howard is on the radio saying, 'Sure you can still go to your favorite restaurant. Just order one entree and split it.'" Another common practice: skip an appetizer and fill up on free bread.
Atlanta's fine-dining scene has all but disappeared. I hope we're not going to be seeing more of the same among second-tier restaurants while the hamburger and hot dog continue their Godzilla-like takeover of the landscape.
Comments (12)
Showing 1-12 of 12
like
dislike
Yeah seriously. Thanks for a contentless article. Gotta respect those mid-priced restaurant owners that won't be around in a few months!
@CT: It's about the specific effects of the economy on restaurant marketing. It IS news if one of the city's best restaurants is closing, even if out of courtesy, I'm not naming it yet.
Had I given the restaurant's name at this time, I'd be criticized for jeopardizing the staff's income. It would be pointless content instead of empty content.
@Godzirra: What's with the new name, SM? Seems you haven't posted a lot lately.
CL might be the most volatile publication I've ever read. One minute they're providing news, and enlightening their readers with new information, and the next, they're smashing their hands on the keyboard uncontrollably. This is the case of the latter.
If this was an article about the "specific effects of the economy on restaurant marketing", then how about actually providing some specifics? Like ways restaurants that are surviving have altered their marketing in these times, rather than some vague reference to "half off coupons, and special menus" - which, in this garbled mess, were the only references to advertising whatsoever.
If you want to offer your opinion, post it in the comments section. Otherwise, please stop wasting time and space with this empty BS.
It must be horrible for you to sort through posts day after day, AtlantaAdvocate. In this case, you write a response that is verging on the length of the gossip (yeah it is) itself.
I appreciate your reading me and taking the time to prattle about something you think is prattle. (By the way, where is the "opinion" in my post?)
I did have some hesitation in reporting this, actually, but I thought his comments about coming to hate what he's doing because of coupon-mania and diners' strategies to reduce costs interesting. I thought the dig at Clark Howard was surprising, too.
I think many people in the industry are extremely burned out by the change in the dining scene. Just as you are unwilling to use your own name in your ceaseless commentary, I doubt many industry people would identify themselves and publicly criticize diners.
But whatever. I don't usually read comments, but I took some time to do so the last few days. Talk about volatility!
Cliff - Create a gossip column, and people will gossip about it. Create news and people will read and digest the news. One is the print equivalent of daytime television, and the other is informative and valuable to readers. Get the difference?
Want to write a piece about how the dining industry has changed through the recession? That sounds like an interesting topic, and one that I, personally, would enjoy reading. However, that assumes that the piece will have more substance than "I met Mr. X in an undisclosed location, and he said a restaurant TBD was shutting down". Otherwise, it's just one big prattle-fest.
So, it's not really an appropriate comparison to pin someone who opines to the occasional article on this site in a section designated solely to readers unedited opinions, with someone who is a commissioned journalist who should be providing news, not gossip. Just because Glenn Beck can get paid to spew inflammatory babble, doesn't mean it's right to do so.
Sorry cliff, i don't buy these excuses - many places in atlanta seem to do just fine in the face of coupons and Clark Howard. Seems like another place that just blames others for their own failures. Few folks can seem to say 'yep I just can't hack it'. Businesses fail, that's life.
I really like how you brought up godzilla at the end of the article and then put a picture of godzilla up with a caption explaining its relevance, namely that godzilla popped into your head while you were writing.
Man I could go for some sushi.
Ha! Now I know why two friends left phone messages calling me Glenn Beck today.
There is a way to do fine dining food with a mid level price. If you look at Paris right now there is a cultural food revolution happening amongst chefs. There are place like la foodie and le chateaubriand (noted in the top 50 restaurants in the world) that don't charge fine ding prices but serve really fantastic food. (No Reservations has shown both of these restaurants.)
In no way am I comparing ATL to Paris however in order for us chefs to make a significant difference in this burger haven of a city, we must progress our thought process, embrace the now, lead the future and take the food scene back to it's rightful place.
We have to educate consumers on these trends as well. If they want to pay mid level prices than that's fine. We just can't offer 20+ menu items and have all the inventory to go with it; nor can we open 200+ seat restaurants. By doing this we can open smaller more specialized restaurants. We can actually be creative in our menu writings and respect each other space. (This chef is doing fried chicken night; it's a great idea but I'm going to do whole hog night. He is doing a five course prefixe featuring happy hollow farms; it's cool but I'm going to use acorn for acorns farms.)
Right now I think we are prime to actually go out and change the landscape of dining in to a new haven of great restaurants. We grow some of the best ingredients, have access to some of the best regional spirits and are prime to be the leaders of food in this region. All the chefs from other cities want to come here; but we are already here and truly don't need them. We are smart enough to figure this out.
Latest in Omnivore
-
Local restaurants honor the late Warren Bruno
Percentage of sales will be donated in Warren Bruno's honor.
-
Weekend food events, May 25-27: 3B Fest, a patio party, and more
Weekend events for Friday May 25 to Sunday May 27.
-
Waiting on Shaun Doty's chicken at Ansley Mall
It's a game of retail dominoes
- More »
More by Author
-
Choffy is so not coffee
Be a good boy and drink your chocolate
-
Christiane Lauterbach kicks and kisses restaurants 1
New issue of Knife & Fork out
- More »
