As I was driving over on the Eastside yesterday, a new sign in the Village at Cedar Shoals Shopping Center (at the corner of Cedar Shoals and Gaines School) caught my eye. In the tiny corner that once upon a time housed a delicious Salvadorean restaurant, a market called Orient Mart has opened up. The timing is especially good because of the shuttering of Oriental Market on South Milledge when the strip it was in went bye-bye due to redevelopment, and Orient Mart includes public transit directions on its business cards, plus something in Korean about UGA Family Housing buildings P and C with some times indicated (a shuttle? a delivery service?). The space isn’t big, but it is clean and bright, well stocked with all the standards, an array of nice-looking fresh vegetables, canned fried dace, bags of roasted peanuts, popsicles in the large freezer section along the back wall, many interesting candies in fancy jars and more. Orient Mart is open every day from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and can be reached at 706-354-6762.
Marker 7 Coastal Grill in Five Points is also officially open for business, although its website remains a placeholder. Owner Chris Lloyd, of Hilltop Grille, is taking things slow, with a soft open. I haven’t seen a menu yet, but the deck he built out looks great and the restaurant does have its own parking. More as I learn it.
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