Tin Drum Heads Downtown

Tin Drum Asia Cafe will open a new location downtown, in the former Fogao Gaucho. Located on Peachtree St. near Broad St. and close to many Georgia State classroom, dorms and other businesses, this should be a great location for this growing Asian concept. Already with 3 locations; Georgia Tech, Lindbergh, and Dunwoody, this new downtown location is scheduled to open July 1.

H&M To Open At North Point In May

Swedish retailer H&M set to open their first Atlanta store next month. Opening before the much hyped Atlantic Station store seems interesting to me, as for I'm sure it does to many more, as Atlantic Station was under way and said to be opening first. It appears to be plagued by delays, as on a look in the windows a few weeks ago, little work had been done while North Point was all but completed. The North Point Mall store will offer clothes for women and young women and will open its doors to the public May 8th. Later, the store at Atlantic Station will carry apparel and accessories for the entire family.

German Grocer Aldi, Making A Push For Atlanta

German based grocer Aldi will be opeing their 22nd Atlanta area store later this spring at the corner of Clairmont Rd. and Buford Hwy in Chamblee. Located on land that formerly housed a PIKE Family Nursery, the shopping center will also include El Pollo Loco restaurant and various other smaller merchants. Known for its low prices and "no frills" expect minimal decoration of the store and low levels of staff. Their savings at the point of purchase and store layout, are returned to the consumer by way of low prices, similar to Wal-Mart, though on a much smaller scale.

Richard Blais To Lead "Home"

Here To Serve has done everything but change the location of its "Posh" restaurant. Reopening April 22nd as simply "Home", Tom Catherall has landed former "Top Chef" contestant Richard Blais to lead the new restaurant. Richard is by no means new to the Atlanta restaurant scene having been at a number of area restaurants over the past few years, including one of his own. Home's menu focuses on southern comfort food with featured items such as a crispy oyster po boy, pork shoulder served with collard greens, peaches, and barbecue sauce, also blue foot fried chicken with macaroni and cheese "ravioli", honey vinaigrette. For those not familiar with Posh (Home), its located at 111 West Paces Ferry Rd just down the road from the Buckhead Whole Foods.

New Boutique Opening Friday In Buckhead

Taking the space formerly occupied by the now defunct CompUSA's training center will be a new womens designer boutique. "MERINO" is scheduled to open this Friday and is located in the "Shops Around Lenox" next door to Y-3. Having performed an extensive remodel of the existing location, including the addition of a number of new front windows, expect it to look very different. With offerings such as jewelry and designer clothing , the boutique seems to complement the current retail in the center. With it still rumored that Crate & Barrel may relocate next door taking some if not all of available space ( CompUSA and Tower Records) the center may become more a destination point than it already is!

Free Coffee @ Starbucks?… YES!, Not A Mistake

Starbucks will introduce their new Pike Place Roast today (4/8) and in celebration will be giving away cups of the new brew starting at 9AM. The new coffee is named after the location of Starbucks' first store, which opened in Seattle's Pike Place Market in 1971.

Garrison's Perimeter Mall To Convert To Hudson Grille

Metrotainment Cafes has closed their Perimeter Mall Garrison's for it to reopen as their Hudson Grille concept. After years of success at Perimter Mall, sales have not been what they once were and Metrotainment has opted to keep the space and try one of their hotter concepts, that being Hudson Grille,currently with locations in Brookhaven and Alpharetta. Similar to Jocks and Jills but with a more refined atmosphere, Hudson's looks to fill a niche in the Perimter Mall area. Look for a Grand Reopening of sorts early this summer.