DEL.ICIO.USMellow Mushroom comes home to downtown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Mellow Mushroom, a quirky pizza chain, opened its first restaurant in 1974 a stone’s throw from downtown Atlanta and Georgia Tech.
After spending three decades dotting metro Atlanta and much of the Southeast with outlets, Mellow Mushroom opened a restaurant this month in downtown Atlanta, about a mile south of the original site.
Todd R. McQueen/Special
The new downtown Mellow Mushroom, at Twelve Centennial Park, is a modern version of the pizza chain’s original concept. Mel, Mellow Mushroom’s Buddha-style mascot, watches over the dining room from his perch in the center.
Todd R. McQueen/Special
CEO Richard Brasch worked his way through college at a Mellow Mushroom in Sandy Springs. He says the chain has ‘a great brand with a loyal customer base.’
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“This is our homecoming in a way,” said Richard Brasch, chief executive officer of the chain.
Mellow Mushroom’s homecoming, though, included a major upgrade in setting. It also comes at a time when the Atlanta-based pizza concept has grown into a sizable chain, expanding well beyond Georgia into Texas, Arizona and Ohio. Mellow Mushroom expects to top 100 outlets in 2009.
The original Mellow Mushroom, razed in the 1980s to make room for Midtown skyscrapers and parking decks, was a low-brow, funky pizza shack.
The new downtown Mellow Mushroom is a modern interpretation of the original concept. It’s set in the bottom of Twelve Centennial Park, a gleaming glass and concrete condo and hotel high-rise.
A Buddha-style statue of Mel — the chain’s laid-back, cartoonish character — sits in the center of the restaurant. His slim buddy, Dude, is behind him.
The spacious venue has a loft-like feel with a mezzanine level that overlooks the main dining area. Massive mushroom light fixtures hang from the ceiling.
“This is very different than any other Mellow Mushroom,” said owner Michel Panos. “It’s got its own charm.”
Michel Panos and his wife, Lesley Panos, own five other Mellow Mushrooms. They had been eyeing downtown Atlanta for several years. With more than 20 Mellow Mushrooms scattered in and around Atlanta, the downtown district, oddly enough, remained one of the few local gaps in the chain.
The right pieces appeared to be falling into place, Michel Panos said. The opening of the Georgia Aquarium and new World of Coca-Cola museum boosted the tourist base. Twelve Centennial Park added condo units and hotel rooms. A new W Hotel is under construction across the street.
“It’s getting to the point where it still might be a little early,” Michel Panos said. “But if we don’t do something now, someone else will do it or it will be more difficult to get a site at a reasonable rental.”
Novare Group, developers of the Twelve building, were pleased to add Mellow Mushroom as a tenant, said George Mori, Novare’s senior vice president of retail.
Twelve already has Room, a sophisticated restaurant. Mellow Mushroom provides a well-known casual dining option, Mori said.
“We think Mellow Mushroom really nails that as an affordable fun, family-oriented restaurant, but also a cool place for young professionals to go and enjoy happy hour or watch a game,” Mori said.
Long dominated by high-end dining, downtown Atlanta is reaching the point where it can support a restaurant like Mellow Mushroom, said Harold Shumacher, president of the Shumacher Group, an Atlanta restaurant real estate broker.
Although conventioneers and tourists will help its business, the growing residential base will provide Mellow Mushroom’s core customer, he said.
“What they have to do is think of downtown Atlanta like any of their locations and reach out to the neighborhood first,” Shumacher said.
The downtown Atlanta restaurant opens as the Mellow Mushroom moves into its second-generation of growth. The chain has 90 outlets with 10 more stores expected to open later this year or next year.
Brasch, the company’s CEO, worked his way through college in the early 1980s at a Mellow Mushroom in Sandy Springs. He admits he didn’t see great promise in the chain at the time.
“It encouraged my studies at school,” said Brasch, who went on to get an undergraduate degree at Emory University and law degree from the University of California.
Brasch returned to the chain in 1999 when Mellow Mushroom had about 30 outlets. At the time, Mellow Mushroom had some operational issues, he said.
Some franchisees, for example, were using cheaper ingredients, Brasch said. Mellow Mushroom’s founders, though, had created a strong brand and great pizza, he said.
“There were some issues when I came in terms of what was going on with the company,” Brasch said. “But I knew, based upon my experience, all of those issues were basically organizational or structural issues. They could be addressed. What you can’t pull out of your hat is a great brand with a loyal customer base.”
Mellow Mushroom wants to keep that spirit but also take risks with new themes, avoiding the cookie-cutter approach to expansion, Brasch said. The downtown restaurant is an example of adding a new look to the Mellow Mushroom theme, he said.
“We don’t want to get stuck in the ’70s with the dead rock star motif,” Brasch said. “We want to transcend that.
The idea, the philosophy is to stay relevant and stay current with what’s going on in the marketplace…not just be married to bell bottoms and Jerry Garcia.”
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