Eats, beloved for affordable comfort food, closing after 33 years in Atlanta
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The Eats Instagram post announcing the restaurant's Oct. 18 closure. Photo: @eats_on_ponce/Instagram
Eats, the Ponce de Leon Avenue restaurant that built a loyal following with consistent comfort food at affordable prices, is closing after service on Oct. 18.
Why it matters: Founded in the early 1990s, Eats has been a touchstone of Atlanta since before the Beltline and mixed-use development changed the world outside the restaurant's stucco walls.
Driving the news: In a heartfelt Instagram post Friday, the restaurant thanked customers, employees and the community for "helping us build something special here in Atlanta, a place where good food, good people, and good vibes met for 33 unforgettable years."
- "EATS has never just been about the food," the restaurant said in the post. "It has always been about you."
- "Y'all gave this place its heartbeat. The conversations, the laughter, the regulars who became family, the generations who grew up walking through our doors."
Zoom in: Countless customers have slid into the red wooden booths to enjoy jerk chicken with sides you'd find at a summer camp buffet, or tortellini pesto pasta served with a slab of garlic bread.
- Local author Hannah Palmer wrote in a 2017 Atlanta Magazine essay, "Regulars like us come to Eats to be fed, but we're really looking for consistency. That's worth a lot in an ever-changing city."
Context: The area surrounding Eats is the epicenter of eastside Atlanta's development boom; Ponce City Market is across the street and the Beltline Eastside Trail is a short walk away. Yet the restaurant has managed to hold fast.
Flashback: Owner Robert Hatcher III, who co-founded Eats with onetime business partner Charlie Kerns (who later launched and still owns The Local), purchased the building in 1998, according to Palmer's essay.
- Hatcher would field calls from developers interested in the property every six months or so, but always said no thanks.
The bottom line: "If you ever sat down for a meal here, pulled up with your people, or stopped by for a jerk chicken to go, we'd love to see you one last time," the restaurant's Instagram post says.
- "Come through, say hello, and help us close this wild chapter the way it began: together."
Axios has contacted Hatcher for an interview.