Small business and restaurant owners talk operating amidst challenges on Atlanta’s west side

The first in a series on the west side of Atlanta, Rough Draft is taking a deep dive into how small business owners, residents, and visitors to the area view the boom in development and the issues it has created in a formerly industrial pocket of the city. 

Since 2023, amidst a development boom, nearly two dozen restaurants have closed between the Marietta Street Artery and 14th Street along Howell Mill Road on Atlanta’s west side. Many of these restaurants closed within two years of opening, and speculation as to why the area is experiencing such a high number of closures ranges from exorbitant parking fees to traffic congestion.

However, a recent gathering of neighborhood stakeholders revealed that the story behind these closures is much more complicated than just steep parking fees and congestion.

At a June 28 meeting that brought together business owners, restaurateurs, and residents of the west side, a survey was distributed to the approximately 35 attendees. The results showed that 27 percent of those in attendance felt recent restaurant closures in an area encompassing the Marietta Street Artery and Howell Mill Road corridor between 8th and 14th streets were due to high operating costs, expensive parking, and vehicular traffic. 

The meeting also explored employee retention solutions, community-building efforts, the high cost of living in the neighborhood, and restaurant redundancy during a panel discussion and question-and-answer session.   

Organized by Richard Dunn, COO of the Atlanta Voice newspaper, Charles Bourgeois, candidate for District 9 Atlanta City Council, and Dona Matthews, a hospitality consultant and member of the Atlanta Nightlife Advisory Council, the West Midtown Hospitality and Small Business Summit included a panel of three restaurant owners. Matthews acted as moderator, providing Miller Union’s Chef Steven Satterfield, Rock Steady owner Jacob Thomas, and Holiday Bar owner Cam Burke the opportunity to talk about the challenges currently facing area restaurants.

Thomas, Satterfield, and Burke opened the discussion by elaborating on their strategies to stay relevant in an increasingly vulnerable Atlanta restaurant market. 

Miller Union has been in the neighborhood since 2009. “The most important part is to get people in the door and then to have people returning,” Satterfield said of keeping Miller Union successful on the west side. “As a legacy restaurant, we always want to engage people from our past to continue to return. We have seen that demographic go down in the past year.”

When Satterfield said the area had been overdeveloped too quickly, the audience audibly agreed. Opening 14 years ago in an abandoned warehouse in a heavily industrial area, Satterfield recalled that market research for Miller Union’s location showed a direct line to Buckhead, Midtown, and downtown Atlanta with access from I-75, I-85, and I-285. 

He knew it was a risk opening on Brady Avenue. 

“It was one of those ‘If you build it, they will come.’ And we were skeptical, but we did build it, and they did come,” Satterfield said during the discussion. 

Related story: Upper Westside CID launches West Midtown parking map

A west side story

It’s unclear who coined the term “Upper Westside” when development ramped up in the early 2010s. A 2005 plan adopted by Mayor Shirley Franklin and the Atlanta City Council refers to the area as the “Upper West Side,” sometimes also referred to as “Westside Midtown” or “West Midtown.”

It’s a horizontal jumble of neighborhoods running north to south from Collier Road at I-75 to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and east to west from industrial Marietta Boulevard to bendy Northside Drive. Residents reference their neighborhoods by name, like Underwood Hills, Berkeley Park, Knight Park/Howell Station, Blandtown, and others. 

Whether colloquially referred to as the Westside, Upper Westside, or West Midtown, the collection of neighborhoods comprising this part of Atlanta is represented by Atlanta City Council members Byron Amos (District 3), Jason Dozier (District 4), Mary Norwood (District 8), Dustin Hillis (District 9), and five Neighborhood Planning Units (NPU) which help make recommendations to the city on zoning and land use. 

Despite being accessible via I-75 to the north, and with four main points of entry running from east to west across the Connector – 10th Street, 14th Street, 17th Street, and North Avenue – Satterfield said that for many people living on the east side of Atlanta, crossing the interstate to the west side of the city is “a psychological barrier.” 

“Within every neighborhood, there are more and more options for dining. So it means that you don’t have to go to a destination to get a somewhat similar experience …or just don’t feel like making the trek,” said Satterfield, who lives on the east side of Atlanta. “For some people, when [the option] is to go out to eat tonight, [they’d] rather just go somewhere in the neighborhood.”

Restaurant saturation on Atlanta’s west side was another issue brought up during the summit’s lively question-and-answer session. BLU Seafood House owner Kechia Matadin noted that residents don’t need “four or five taco joints on the same strip.” She questioned the vetting of the type of restaurants and retail moving into the neighborhood, and who these establishments actually serve: residents versus visitors. 

Before both closed, independently owned pizzerias Humble Pie and Slim + Husky’s were just two of seven pizza joints in the area, including corporate-owned Domino’s, Johnny’s, Papa John’s, and Blaze Pizza, and local chain Fellini’s. And before the closures of Bartaco and Superica, the restaurants were among six similar restaurants along the Marietta Street Artery, Northside Drive, and Howell Mill Road, including Torchy’s Tacos, Velvet Taco, Rreal Tacos, and Taqueria del Sol. The latter, owned by Chef Eddie Hernandez, opened in 2000 and is one of the original businesses part of the Westside Urban Market, now Westside Provisions District.

“We don’t need the same thing in the same area. The developers are receiving money and incentives, and no one is vetting the area … no one is overseeing who’s opening what [and] where,” Matadin said, who was frustrated by the lack of communication between developers and the area’s business owners and residents.

What’s in and what’s out

According to the survey at the June 28 summit, overdevelopment and high commercial and residential rents along the Marietta Street Artery and Howell Mill Road corridor were the most significant issues facing neighborhood stakeholders in attendance. Many people felt these two issues directly contributed to the recent rash of restaurant closures.

Local and regional restaurants serving pizza, tacos, breakfast, and Japanese food, along with major chain restaurants like Wagamama, Postino Wine Bar, and Culinary Dropout, have all opened and closed on the west side within the past two years. As of publication, the west side has faced more than 20 closures since the beginning of 2024, the most recent being Bastone this May.

A slew of incoming tenants slated to open at developments along the Marietta Street Artery and around Howell Mill Road include a mix of local and regional restaurant groups and national and international chains.

But Satterfield noted during the West Midtown summit that Atlantans tend to support homegrown, independently-owned businesses.

Upcoming locally owned restaurant openings in the area include Eden from Nooshe Jan Group, Ladybird Grove and Mess Hall, and The Chai Box Cafe, which will take over the old Doughnut Dollies space on Howell Mill Road near Collier Road.

Fishmonger, which recently closed on Howell Mill Road, will eventually move into a new space inside Stella at Star Metals next door.

Pink Lotus, backed by the owners of 26 Thai Kitchen, just took over the space previously occupied by Italian restaurant Donetto across from Miller Union on Brady Avenue.

The developers of Stella at Star Metals announced this month the upcoming openings of cocktail bar Rabbit Ears and Italian restaurant Füm. 

Later this year, Big Bad Breakfast, owned by Mississippi-based chef John Currence, will open on the opposite end of Howell Mill Road near Collier Road in the former Cultivate Food & Coffee space. 

In 2024, developer SJC Ventures announced grocery chain Lidl would replace previously announced Publix at Interlock Tower on Howell Mill Road. SJC Ventures confirmed with Rough Draft that Lidl should open later this fall at Interlock Tower.

Meanwhile, longtime restaurants Marcel at Westside Provisions District and Cooks & Soldiers on the corner of Howell Mill Road and 14th Street doubled down on the neighborhood, renewing leases for another ten years. 

Community building

Thomas said small businesses like Rock Steady along the Marietta Street Artery should tend to the community, like gardeners. Shopkeepers are interfacing with customers, creating culture, and adjusting to the needs of the neighborhood. 

“Restaurants and bars, we’re on the front line,” Thomas said. [The west side] wouldn’t have become what it was without cool restaurants and cool bars.”

His mantra: “Treat your regulars like celebrities. Treat your celebrities like regulars.”

Satterfield agreed and said it’s important for business owners to band together. While he feels “deep empathy for every one of those businesses that had to shut their doors,” he realizes that if people stop patronizing the west side of town, Miller Union could be at risk of closing. 

Likewise, Burke said that if Holiday Bar doesn’t continue to evolve, and customers aren’t evolving with it, he’s doing a disservice to the people spending money there. “We have a service to deliver,” he added. 

“People just want to be heard, and you have to listen to those opinions, and that’s really where the community building comes in,” Burke said. “We had our first Holiday Bar baby this year, which I was really excited about. The couple met at Holiday, and now have a child. So we celebrate those types of little wins.” 

The three-hour summit ended with lingering questions about how to open lines of communication between business owners, area NPUs, and residents. Karmen Elizabeth, resident and president of the Marietta Street Artery Association, urged business owners to regularly attend monthly neighborhood meetings and engage with the community better. 

“What could they do for us? What could we do for them? What could we all do to kind of help the neighborhood?” one audience member asked.  

In the next article on the west side, we will explore accessibility to trails and sidewalks, pedestrian safety, and the concept of a 15-minute neighborhood.  

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