Pano’s & Paul’s closing, relocating

Pano’s & Paul’s, the iconic West Paces Ferry Road landmark that turns 30 next February, will close just after its birthday celebration.

The Buckhead Life Restaurant Group has confirmed that the restaurant’s lease will not be renewed next April. Founder Pano Karatassos plans to relocate his flagship restaurant to an unnamed Buckhead location, though no specifics have been announced.

“He knows,” said company spokeswoman Jennifer Boozer, referring to Buckhead Life founder Karatassos. “He wants something new. Something fresh.”

Boozer repeatedly emphasized that the restaurant, a major Atlanta culinary destination in the 1980s that helped bring the city’s dining scene into national focus, will remain open until the lease expires, and that the company will definitely find a new home for it. Parking in the strip shopping center it shares with a Publix has proved a problem over the years, Boozer said.

Rumors had been wafting through the city’s dining rooms since last year that the group might pull up roots at the restaurant’s location. The Buckhead spot has fallen off the radar of scene-seeking diners in recent years, except for the well-to-do crowd that lives in the surrounding area.

Now the table talk is of where the new location will be —- the St. Regis Atlanta, scheduled to open next March? Seems like good timing. …

Meanwhile, Pano’s & Paul’s chef Gary Donlick has been appointed chef at Pano’s Grand Cafe, the company’s new restaurant designed by the Johnson Studio.

It’s set to open next spring in the Sovereign/Tower Place complex on Peachtree Road.