We have a tendency to catastrophize each year lately. It’s understandable. We continue to live in interesting times. Late capitalism keeps thrashing around, making things worse for almost everyone. It remains very hard to run a restaurant, a business that was never easy.
Yet, looking back at the Athens food scene over all of 2023 reveals some real highlights as well as some losses. It wasn’t as good a year for new places as 2022. We lost our oldest restaurant when the Mayflower closed, its owners having decided that they wanted to retire and to make some money off the building they owned. I, too, am bummed that the space will become a Chipotle in 2024, part of downtown’s generally Chad-focused dining scene, but nothing lasts forever. Our only Argentinean restaurant (Viva!), one of our two legitimate traditional Chinese restaurants (Wok Star), our only Persian restaurant (International Grill and Bar), our only two Uruguayan restaurants (both locations of Sabor Latino) and my beloved Sidecar (one of my favorite dining experiences) all closed, it’s true, but we also got some delightful new places.
I’m tired of hearing you complain that there are too many Mexican restaurants in the area, and you’re probably tired of me saying that there definitely aren’t, but I’ll keep on with my hobbyhorse, and you feel free to keep on with yours. Taqueria Morros, a second coming of the much appreciated Taqueria Juaritos, opened out on Danielsville Road with rich soups, all kinds of meaty fillings, a huge array of quite hot salsas and more. The review proper ran last week, so read it online and know that you should absolutely find this family-run place. Lalo’s Tacos and Cantina, in Watkinsville’s Wire Park development, is more upscale and has things like octopus tacos on the menu. It also makes really tasty aguachiles, and has a serious bar that makes cocktails with fresh ingredients. El Paso Tacos and Tequila downtown, where Iron Factory was until the Korean barbecue place closed this year, is a different kind of pleasant Mexican restaurant, heavy on frozen margaritas and with guacamole made tableside to your specifications. It’s not trying to make you push yourself with new flavors and ingredients, but it does what it does very well. Kique’s Kitchen got a new spelling and a new location (in Watkinsville), and is continuing to serve up birria in every manner possible with good cheer. Homero Elizalde, longtime chef at home.made, started his own Homy’s Food Truck, serving at home.made’s Bar Sober and popping up various other places around town, doing tacos, quesabirria, tamales and more. Cantaritos Cafe, in the Homewood Shopping Center, offers not only Mexican food but Colombian, Peruvian and Salvadoran specialties for breakfast and lunch, including possibly the best chilaquiles in Athens. All different. All special in their own way.
The Eastside continued to grow as a location for more diverse food offerings, with Bon de Paris (a chain but a small one) making banh mi right next door to the Crab Hut, cooking up really good pho. Mochinut, just across the parking lot, added an array of Indonesian dishes to its menu, including breakfast. Fingers crossed that less expensive rent and an audience with a broader palate will continue to foster growth over there.
Athens Cooks, in the 100 Prince building, turned out to have a fantastic breakfast and lunch counter, with soups and sandwiches made by a guy who trained at Five and Ten and has a real eye for quality ingredients and pretty presentation. Birdie’s, just down the road and across the street, has its own fancy hot food, plus cheeses that we haven’t seen the likes of in a while and all kinds of swanky ingredients, including caviar. Prince Market also opened up nearby, with a deli counter for fresh-made sandwiches.
Cafe Racer’s Broad Street location finally opened and pretty much recaptured the magic of its original space, minus the countryside. Work on a third location, on Oak Street by the Greenway, is underway. Mama’s Boy added its own third location, a scaled-back stand in Wire Park as part of a food hall that’s still coming together (Scoops, retailing ice cream and candy, opened nearby; Gekko Kitchen, doing quick sushi and hibachi, opened at the end of the year; Apotheos Roastery, the Original Hot Dog Factory and Southern Prospect are yet to come).
The bar scene deepened and diversified, with Bain Mattox and Sam Frigard’s Hidden Gem and Jerry and Krista Slater’s Nighthawks Lounge opening in the Chase Street warehouse district north of Boulevard, Oak House Distillery getting going in a historic house on Macon Highway, and even Comer getting into the scene with Soldier of the Sea Distillery. Loving Botanicals opened a CBD coffee and mocktail bar downtown.
Old favorites underwent some changes. Daily Groceries moved into its new location in the “flying saucer” building on Prince Avenue, with way more space and cakes from the folks who used to make them for The Grit. Home.made stopped doing dinner but found a way to thrive with lunch and some new projects. Independent Baking Co. added sandwiches, and they are excellent. Bar Bruno expanded its hours and got closer to a restaurant than a pure wine bar. Puma Yu’s added lunch (Tuesday through Thursday). Five and Ten got a new executive chef, Fausto Zamorano, who is firing on all cylinders. Big City Bread added dinner back on Friday nights. The Grill reopened (!). Baddie’s and Square One both added food trucks, and the latter sold to new owners who plan to expand its hours and do some new things. Tamez BBQ sold when its namesake, Alejandro Tamez, decamped for Atlanta to run the kitchen at Chicheria MX Kitchen with his former coworker Whitney Otawka. The Graduate Hotel downtown added breakfast and lunch at its coffee spot, Poindexter. And Ru San’s moved to Watkinsville and changed its name to Sushi One & Bobalicious Café.
We added a bunch of chains, no surprise: a branch of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Five Points; Emmy Squared doing fancy, pricey pizza in what had been The Grit; Elliano’s Coffee on Highway 29 North; another Flying Biscuit in Oconee County’s Epps Bridge area as well as another Maepole (still local, but also franchising) and a Jim N Nick’s barbecue; a Paris Banh Mi, a Taco Mama, an Effin’ Egg, a Cheba Hut and a Bruxie, all downtown; a location of Another Broken Egg Cafe on Broad near Cafe Racer; and a Whataburger on Atlanta Highway, with another on the way on the Eastside.
But we also got independent businesses, some of which were second or third locations, but none of which was part of a massive corporate structure: Sunroof Coffee on Tracy Street, run out of a tiny kiosk by two BFFs; Garfia’s Mexican Restaurant in Winterville, in the space vacated by Wok Star, providing much-needed dinner options in that small town; Frank & Sons, a steakhouse on the Eastside run by the folks behind Punta Cana. Treehouse Kid and Craft, the magical toy store, moved to Barber Street and added Treathouse, an area of the store open slightly different days/hours that has cool candies, popsicles and soft serve (unless the machine is broken). Flama Brazilian Steakhouse replaced the Oglethorpe Avenue Sabor Latino, and Costa Alegre Seafood and Grill moved into the Sabor Latino in front of the Watkinsville Publix. Philanthropy Fresh moved from Loganville to downtown Athens, doing breakfast, lunch and dinner that lets customers vote on which local charity will receive a portion of the restaurant’s proceeds each month. @local, a ‘90s-esque coffeehouse based in Covington, also opened a location downtown.
RIP the Carriage House of Athens, Slutty Vegan (even though the sign remains), Zombie Coffee and Donuts, Doughby’s in Watkinsville (soon to be the location of a third Winghouse Grill), C & C Cafe and Produce in Winterville, Four Fat Cows ice cream on Baxter, the Eastside’s BBQ Shack and Burger King, all remaining Hardee’s in Athens, Charlie Grainger’s hot doggery, OK Coffee downtown and Mandarin Express at the Georgia Square Mall, almost the last eatery left in that space.
Here’s what’s coming down the pike: Entangled Cat Cafe and Market in Watkinsville, Guthrie’s (both on Jefferson Road and elsewhere, making a return to the Athens area), Pretty Boy in the Bottleworks, San Angel Cocina from the folks behind Lalo’s and Los Primos (on Broad in the former Applebee’s), Preacher Green’s doing a chef-crafted meat and three on the Eastside, Bruno Rubio’s Peruvian rotisserie chicken joint Pollo Criollo in the former Heirloom in Boulevard, a steakhouse from Bahmin Ghavimi (inventor of a catfish loaf and developer of various “flavor systems” sold to restaurants) in the former Synovus Bank on Prince Avenue, a new location for Normaltown Brewing (in the previous Jittery Joe’s Roastery spot on Barber), a second taproom for Southern Brewing Co. downtown, more bubble tea (Shake Tea in the new Publix shopping center at Oak Grove, Happy Lemon in The William downtown), a Korean fried chicken chain in The William, a Playa Bowls in Beechwood as well as a bizarro La Parrilla restaurant unrelated to our local chain and a First Watch breakfast franchise replacing Jason’s Deli, a location of Dave’s Hot Chicken (location TBD) and, supposedly, the long anticipated return of Athens Bagel Co.
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