Street work cuts into brunch restaurant's profits 2 years after launch
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Eat My Biscuits serves savory biscuit sandwiches. Photos: Courtesy of Vanetta Roy/Eat My Biscuits
Three years after retiring from teaching and moving to Atlanta from Chicago in 2020, Vanetta Roy opened Eat My Biscuits — a restaurant concept she'd been mulling since the early days of the pandemic.
Why it matters: More than two years into serving breakfast and brunch to customers in East Point, the business owner says the city's downtown multimodal improvement project is hampering her ability to make a profit.
The latest: Eat My Biscuits, which opened in October 2023, and other businesses along Main Street have been holding on for dear life since early 2025 when crews began construction.
What they're saying: Roy recently told Axios she's lost at least $200,000 in revenue due to the construction.
- The project, which will install bike lanes, reduce the number of travel lanes and add parallel parking, has blocked visibility and access to the restaurant, which in turn reduces foot traffic.
- For small businesses like hers, Roy said the construction has led to "a noticeable decline in sales even when demand and customer loyalty remain strong."
- "It has also created added operational stress, as owners must work harder and exhaust more resources on marketing just to maintain the same level of business they had before construction began," Roy told Axios.
- Priscilla Womble, who owns Extension Blow Dry Bar on Main Street, told CBS News that her customers won't bother stopping by if they can't easily access the salon.
The other side: East Point officials did not respond to requests for comment, but CBS reported the city hopes to wrap the project up by February.
Context: Construction projects along major thoroughfares not only frustrate motorists and pedestrians, but also cause anxiety among business owners who rely on a steady stream of traffic to keep them afloat.
- Businesses along Atlanta's Cascade Road demonstrated this so clearly that city crews began working around the clock to finish the Complete Street Project.
Zoom in: Despite the construction, Roy says she rolls up her sleeves like the rest of her staff and helps the customers who do show up, taking and serving orders and answering questions about the menu.
- Eat My Biscuits' offering includes savory biscuit sandwiches, such as a hot honey chicken biscuit, seafood biscuit and a catfish and potato biscuit.
- "You can get a chicken biscuit from anywhere, but you can't get a hot honey chicken biscuit that's a big-ass biscuit with eggs and pickles," Roy said.
Catch up quick: If Roy's name sounds familiar, you might recognize her from Season 18 of the Food Network's "The Great Food Truck Race."
- The network also listed Eat My Biscuits as the best food truck in Georgia.
- "I was excited [about] being able to be on national television and get my brand out there, literally across the country," Roy said.
- She opened her first restaurant, Surf's Up, about 12 years ago in Chicago while she was still teaching.
What we're watching: Whether Eat My Biscuits and other Main Street businesses will be able to recoup the losses next year once the project is done.