Community lessons from a restaurant’s final days
Hi, food friends.
Isn’t it funny how a restaurant like Eats on Ponce de Leon Avenue can announce that it’s closing amid declining business, only to be swarmed by a nostalgia-driven crowd in the weeks before it closes? The line at Eats wrapped around the building at lunchtime earlier this week, something owner Bob Hatcher said he expected.
Yesterday, the restaurant posted a video of the crowd on social media with the caption, “Thanks Atlanta. Come see us this week but please come early!” The video’s final shot looked through the window at the new Pottery Barn across the street.
It’s always sad to see a local restaurant with a 30-year legacy shut down. But Food & Dining reporter Olivia Wakim spoke to Hatcher for an article about the closure last week, and I was struck by Hatcher’s fatalistic tone. Rather than despairing, he said he was grateful.
“It’s been a hell of an experience,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But I just think its time just came and went.”
Eats has been a beacon of affordable, quality food in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward neighborhood since 1992; I remember my dad taking me there for lunch when I was in college. It was a favorite of his when he worked downtown, and it’s the type of wholesome, simple restaurant that’s all too rare these days.
Eats is also a legendary real estate holdout. Hatcher weathered the ups and downs of the neighborhood and has been sitting on a lottery ticket for more than a decade, though he always refused to sell.
I can’t help but think that part of the public grief over Eats’ closure has to do with the change that comes next. It would take a miracle for the property’s next owner to keep Eats as-is; the future likely holds more construction, more redevelopment and less character.
I’ll mourn the loss of Eats like so many others, but I’m trying to take a lesson from Hatcher’s perspective. Change is inevitable and so few restaurants endure beyond one decade, much less three. So, I’m grateful for the (too few) meals I enjoyed there, and happy to see Atlantans flocking to Eats in its final days. That kind of love between a business and its community can’t be bought or manufactured; it’s earned little by little, year after year.
Do you have tips, thoughts or questions for the AJC’s food and dining team? Reach out to me at henri.hollis@ajc.com
About the Author
Henri Hollis is a reporter and restaurant critic for the Food & Dining team. Formerly a freelance writer and photographer with a focus on food and restaurants, he joined the AJC full-time in January 2021, first covering breaking news. He is a lifelong Atlantan and a graduate of Georgia Tech.
