The owners of MikChan’s announced on Instagram that the restaurant will move from its current location in East Atlanta Village to Cabbagetown, where it will share a space with sister restaurant, JenChan’s.
Owners Emily and Jen Chan wrote in an Instagram post that they are working to expand MikChan’s into a food truck and “need all our resources close by.”
MikChan’s will be open for lunch at JenChan’s, and the delivery radius will remain the same.
JenChan’s found its origins in 2018 as a supper club delivery service, which Emily and Jen Chan expanded into a brick-and-mortar restaurant in September 2019 with a location in Cabbagetown at 186 Carroll St. SE.
Named after the Chans’ son, MikChan’s is located at 479 Flat Shoals Ave. SE in East Atlanta Village food hall Qommunity. It replaced Q Trinh’s counter-service concept We Suki Suki in early 2022. Trinh later opened We Suki Suki Qafe Pho Bar in another space in the food hall.
MikChan’s serves what it describes as “healthy-ish junk food,” including tacos, banh mis and fresh takes on fast food items like crunch wraps and Chick-fil-A-style sandwiches known as Mik-fil-As.
After receiving an influx of off-site parties and catering jobs for MikChan’s, Emily Chan said she realized they were outgrowing the East Atlanta Village space, which is intended more for pop-ups and lacks some of the resources they needed to operate efficiently. They also noticed more requests for them to bring a food truck to the events they were catering.
Emily Chan was hesitant about starting a food truck at first.
“It’s a lot healthier environment, I think, for food trucks,” Emily Chan said. “There’s a lot more spaces now. They’re opening up a lot more opportunities for small businesses, so we just thought this was sort of the perfect time.”
They anticipate the food truck will be in operation sometime in the first half of 2024, Emily Chan said. In the meantime, customers can keep getting their MikChan’s fix at JenChan’s.
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
The Cabbagetown location will be serving an expanded MikChan’s menu on Tuesday through Friday starting at 11 a.m., Emily Chan said. She isn’t sure what time they’ll switch over to JenChan’s dinner menu yet.
Some items will include fried rice, a Mongolian beef cheesesteak and a Duck, Duck, Mousse Banh Mi with confit duck and duck pâté.
Credit: Courtesy of Emily Chan
Credit: Courtesy of Emily Chan
Once the food truck is operational, they’ll take MikChan’s on the road, serving anything from loaded French fries to pizza.
“It just seems like the perfect evolution for what this concept should be, which is just silly,” Emily Chan said. “So we figured why not make it a food truck and just double down on our efforts to be kind of ridiculous?”
The eatery will close out the week in East Atlanta and will officially open with an expanded menu at JenChan’s on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
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