It is a regular complaint that Athens only has one Indian restaurant (or has been ever since Bombay Cafe closed downtown). Well, the folks who run Achachi Market at 2024 South Milledge Ave., across from the mosque, are about to double your options. Mitti Food Court, which promises Desi cuisine (i.e. not just Indian, but also Pakistani and such), has replaced Iguana’s next door to Achachi and should be opening very soon. The owners said “next week,” but it wouldn’t be surprising if it were longer, given the optimism that comes with opening a restaurant at all. The plan is to have counter ordering so that folks can either take their food to go or dine in, with some tables and chairs so that they can sit and eat on premises if wanted.
There’s also Curry Love, a new ghost kitchen being run out of Munch Hut downtown, which has Indian food available for DoorDash delivery only, on weekdays from 11 a.m.–1:40 p.m. and then again from 4–7 p.m. Or maybe 8 p.m. As with Munch Hut generally, it’s a bit hard to get a read on, but you can order things like Chicken 65, butter chicken or chana tikka masala as well as mango lassis.
Preacher Greens, the cheffy meat-and-three by a local made good covered previously here in Flagpole, is open for lunch and dinner on the Eastside, wigging out people who’ve never imagined you could fry a pod of okra whole instead of slicing it first.
Savage Pizza, an Atlanta business with locations in Little Five Points and Avondale Estates, is looking to open in Athens, location TBD.
Watkinsville news: Southern Prospect, in Wire Park, is close to opening. Wing House Grill has opened a Watkinsville location for the second time, in the former Doughby’s at 50 N. Main Street. And Baddies Burgers is opening a second location in Watkinsville in what was the Crab Hut, at 1011 Park Drive, across from Publix and next to Zaxby’s.
In chain restaurant news: Panera Bread is opening a location downtown at Broad and Lumpkin streets, in the old SunTrust building. Bon de Paris, on the Eastside, appears to be permanently closed, but Happy Lemon Bubble Tea, underneath The William on Newton Street downtown, is open, so we’re not really down a bubble tea spot. Our second Surcheros, in the Markets at Epps Bridge Shopping Center in Oconee County, is open. Kilwins, a tourist-oriented fudgery, is set to open this spring in the former 283 Bar, on Broad downtown. The Oak Grove Shopping Center, where the fancy new Publix is on Jefferson Road, is adding a Marble Slab Creamery/Great American Cookie Co. AND a Taco Bell. Highway 29 North, near the Space Kroger, is adding a Papa John’s next to its Firehouse Subs. The combination Taco Bell/KFC on Atlanta Highway is dropping the second half of its combo, becoming purely a Taco Bell. Farm Burger has added chicken sandwiches. Both Cheba Hut and Mellow Mushroom are doing special 420 promos for Apr. 20, as one would expect.
In 420 news for the rest of us, that day is also the kick-off for the West Broad Farmers Market’s season, in a new location: under the pavilion at Rock Springs Park. The market will be open 11 a.m.–2 p.m. Saturdays. Tuesday markets kick off Apr. 23 from 5–8 p.m. (every second and fourth Tuesday of the month) at Athentic Brewing Co.
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