DEL.ICIO.USMetro Atlanta restaurants hungrier for patrons
As well-known eateries close, others offer discounts to penny-pinching customers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Starbucks coffee for $1.25, no matter the size.
Half off dinners on Mondays.
CHANDLER BROWN / cmbrown@ajc.com
The Globe on Georgia Tech Technology Square shut down in October.
Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com
‘It’s an amazing mix of emotions,’ said Anthony Corvelli after he had to close his Three Bears Cafe in Marietta.
Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com
Three Bears’ owner says he’ll look for work utilizing his industrial engineering degree from Georgia Tech.
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GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Some of the restaurants that have closed recently include:
• Taurus: "Where Buckhead Meets Midtown" at Peachtree and 25th streets; closed after New Year's Eve dinner.
• Sweet Devil Moon: near the intersection of Piedmont Avenue and 10th Street; went dark last week, its windows boarded up, voice-mail full and Web site gone.
• The Globe: Georgia Tech Technology Square, shut down in October. A sign on the door this week said owners hoped to reopen under a different concept later this year.
• Amore: Plaza Midtown West Peachtree Street; closed recently.
• Calavino's: Oakhurst; closed recently.
Attempts to reach most restaurant owners on the phone or via e-mail were not successful.
-- Chandler M. Brown
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Three-course, prix-fixe dinners for $30 at swanky intown eateries.
Restaurateurs across metro Atlanta are offering deals to keep diners coming out during today’s lean economic times. They know if they can’t, they could suffer the fate of Anthony Corvelli.
The owner of Three Bears Cafe, a popular restaurant and bar on the Marietta Square, Corvelli lived his dream of being a restaurateur for three years. But last fall, as fuel prices skyrocketed and the nation’s economy tanked, Corvelli couldn’t pay the bills. He closed Three Bears in late December and filed for bankruptcy.
Corvelli, who’s married to a corporate attorney, plans to look for work utilizing his industrial engineering degree from Georgia Tech.
“It’s an amazing mix of emotions,” Corvelli, 32, of Marietta said Thursday as he showed his empty tavern to prospective buyers. “I’m happy the stress is over; the bank accounts, the servers wondering where their tips are. At the same time, it’s crushing watching your dreams go down the tube.”
With many families cutting costs at every turn, one of the first expenditures to go is eating out, experts say. And because restaurants operate on razor-thin profit margins, they are more susceptible to failure than other businesses in slow economic times.
About a half-dozen well-known restaurants have closed in recent months, including Taurus in Midtown and Italian eatery Calavino’s in Oakhurst.
“The restaurants are no different from many families who operate month-to-month based on take-home pay,” said Georgia State University bankruptcy law professor Marjorie L. Girth.
“As soon as the income line is affected, the family - or the restaurant — will be in financial trouble.”
Ron Wolf, chief executive officer of the Georgia Restaurant Association, said restaurant closings in metro Atlanta “are considerably higher than they were in recent years.”
The cost of raw goods like corn and flour are “the highest we’ve seen in three decades,” said Wolf, whose organization represents about 3,000 restaurants. “Add that to the other economic factors, and it’s a perfect storm.”
Shaun Doty, the chef and owner of swanky Shaun’s restaurant in Inman Park, said he has seen firsthand the changes in spending among diners.
“I’m cooking a lot more hamburgers for guests,” said Doty, whose eatery, known for eclectic dishes like watermelon salad and Berkshire pork schnitzel, is using a $29 prix-fixe meal to attract guests.
Anecdotally, restaurants that are feeling the pressure the most are on the high end, industry observers said. Diners with expense accounts have all but disappeared, and the well-heeled are being more thrifty. The deals, however, are across the board.
The Crowne Plaza Atlanta Perimeter instituted a line of Starbucks coffee for $1.25, regardless of size. The hotel’s restaurant, the Chattahoochee Grille, is running fixed-price dinners several days of the week, like Turf Tuesdays, where diners get a steak dinner with appetizer, salad and dessert for $19.95; or Frugal Fridays, where two people can eat for $25.
Diners at Dolce and Geisha House in Atlantic Station get half off their meals if they eat at the restaurants on Mondays.
Many restaurants have slimmed down their inventories. Instead of having $50,000 worth of wine ready for customers, for instance, they are stocking only about $10,000, industry leaders said. And they are being even more selective on perishable foods.
To survive, restaurants are being forced to take a number of approaches, said Debra Mager, president of New Eyes, an Atlanta-based restaurant consulting firm. For every restaurant that has a discount, another is dusting off its list of frequent customers. Others are going to festivals to reach new diners or ramping up advertising, and still others “are just trying to wait it out,” she said.
Robert Gerstenecker, executive chef at Park 75 at the Four Seasons, convened a nine-course dinner for trendsetters recently to help keep the four-star restaurant on diners’ minds. Breakfast and lunch revenues, he said, are holding their own, but those for dinner are down a bit.
One of the Four Seasons’ biggest challenges is convincing diners that a meal there is affordable, said Gerstenecker, who offers a three-course, “pre-theater” dinner for $35 before 7 p.m.
“That’s the perception,” Gerstenecker said of the cost of dining at Park 75. “It’s a challenge for us to break through. When people come in through that marble lobby, they think they have to leave their credit cards at the desk.”
— Staff writer Rachel Tobin Ramos contributed to this article.
