The Very First Chick-fil-A Restaurant Closes at Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta

It seems the very first Chick-fil-A restaurant is about to shut Saturday, Might 20, after practically 56 years at Greenbriar Mall, in response to a number of native information retailers and indicators posted on the meals court docket stall. Google and the restaurant’s Fb web page listing the placement as “completely closed.”

Indicators on the Greenbriar Mall location point out Chick-fil-A opens at 11 a.m. on Saturday and closes by 4 p.m. that afternoon.

Chick-fil-A was born from the success of one other metro Atlanta landmark restaurant owned by its late founder Truett Cathy, the Dwarf Grill (later renamed the Dwarf Home) in Hapeville, which opened in 1946. The Hapeville restaurant was additionally the birthplace of the Chick-fil-A fried hen sandwich. Cathy ultimately licensed the fried hen sandwich to a number of space eating places and later constructed a whole quick meals empire round it, beginning with the primary location of Chick-fil-A at Greenbriar Mall in 1967.

It’s unclear why the corporate is closing its historic Greenbriar Mall location, or if staff there shall be given jobs at different Chick-fil-A places in Atlanta. Chick-fil-A has but to answer a number of requests for touch upon the choice to shut at Greenbriar Mall.

For a lot of native and longtime Atlantans, the closure of this explicit Chick-fil-A is the tip of an period. For others, it’s one other signal that the department stores of yore lack the enchantment they as soon as loved, as folks choose the comfort of on-line procuring. A lot of the as soon as bustling malls throughout America now function vacant storefronts and half-empty parking tons. Gone, too, are the times when flocks of youngsters would hang around on the mall to buy, socialize, and eat after faculty and on weekends.

Chick-fil-A

So, what’s the way forward for Greenbriar Mall as Chick-fil-A and different main manufacturers and anchor tenants depart the procuring complicated? Metro Atlanta malls like Stonecrest, North DeKalb Mall, and North Level Mall are present process main multi-million greenback revamps with a view to create mixed-use developments and leisure districts full of housing, places of work, retail, and eating places, in addition to inexperienced areas for outside neighborhood occasions.

The outdated Sears constructing on the Mall at Stonecrest is changing into a 13-stall meals corridor in 2024 to incorporate native spots just like the Atlanta Breakfast Membership, the Authentic Sizzling Canine Manufacturing unit, and Dope Espresso. The refreshed complicated already contains SeaQuest aquarium. North DeKalb Mall is reworking into Lulah Hills, a 73-acre growth full with residences, townhomes, a lodge, strolling trails, and new retail and eating places. And proposals to redo the sprawling North Level Mall complicated in Alpharetta right into a work-live-play district proceed to be mentioned.

Again in 2021, Atlanta meals and tradition author Mike Jordan wrote about what he referred to as “the ghost of Christmas previous­” at Greenbriar Mall for Atlanta journal, speculating on the mall’s future and reflecting on its previous. That previous included Atlanta music producer Jermaine Dupri discovering a few youngsters there who would later change into the hip-hop duo Kris Kross. At the moment, Greenbriar Mall continues to be a magnet for Atlanta sneakerheads, frequenting shops like Foot Locker and Footaction.

Final 12 months, Jordan wrote about all the new growth occurring round Greenbriar Mall for Capital B Atlanta, asking native residents to share their ideas on the longer term plans for the encompassing space. Reasonably priced housing and facilities and eating places catering to folks already residing close to the getting old mall had been high priorities.

“Now that one of many final main manufacturers is leaving Greenbriar — one which’s been extremely profitable, and whose company headquarters is predicated right here within the Atlanta space — you need to marvel how Greenbriar continues to draw sufficient clients to maintain a reputable technique of survival,” Jordan says of the Chick-fil-A closure.

“It’s not like Chick-fil-A was retaining the lights on, however they’re actually going to be even dimmer at Greenbriar with this distinctive landmark going away,” he provides.

Almost six a long time after opening at Greenbriar Mall, there are actually over 3,000 Chick-fil-A eating places worldwide. All of those places are famously closed on Sundays, a nod to Chick-fil-A’s conservative-leaning fame. As Chick-fil-A eating places open in new markets, the corporate additionally continues to grapple with its socially and politically conservative stances and a protracted historical past of donating to teams with anti-LGBTQ agendas. Makes an attempt have been made in recent times to make clear the corporate’s messaging round these points and to take “a extra centered giving method.”

2841 Greenbriar Parkway, Atlanta.