LeRoy’s Fried Chicken closes after four months

LeRoy's Fried Chicken ~ What Now Atlanta
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Photo courtesy of LeRoy’s on Facebook

Did investors chicken out too soon?

Grabbing a quick bite from Chef Julia LeRoy’s newly opened LeRoy’s Fried Chicken on the Westside has been on our foodie to-do list since its opening just four months ago (what seemed like a reasonable time frame for its new restaurant kinks to be worked out).

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Today, What Now Atlanta learned though Atlanta Magazine’s Bill Addison, it closed Monday night. Owners Clay Harper and Mike Nelson (who operate Fellini’s Pizza, La Fonda and other fast casual restaurants) decided to close the restaurant, Addison reported.

LeRoy’s officially announced it would be closing in a Facebook post Tuesday.

“LeRoy’s Fried Chicken would like to say thank you to everyone that’s shown us love and support. Unfortunately it didn’t work out and we’ve decided to close up shop,” according to the posting. “Until next time, be good to one another. Illegitimus non carborundum est.”

Several Facebook users, including Amy Matthes, who “like” the restaurant on Facebook shared thoughts about it closing.

“Is this a joke? What the hell? The best fried chicken and collards in the city gone? Say it isn’t so,” Matthes commented.

What, if anything, will replace LeRoy’s Fried Chicken is uncertain at this time.

LeRoy was not immediately available for comment.

 

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

11 Responses

  1. That sucks. I wouldn’t say it was the *best* food, but it was pretty great. Sad to see the loss to West Midtown. (And four months seems like a ridiculously short effort.)

  2. I hate to see another restaurant fail, and the service here was always so friendly. While the concept was good, the chicken just wasn’t. It was too heavily breaded, with a thick hard crust, then a mushy doughy layer, then the chicken itself. Plus, the proportions of the sides made it impossible to order a reasonable dinner for one. I hope another restauranteur picks up on this concept and tweaks it, because there’s real potential there.

  3. This sux. Julia got a bad rap because of some early equipment issues and a learning curve on what customers wanted. The last time I was there it was the best fried chicken in the city and the collards were awesome. Sorry to see it go.

  4. Weird crust that peeled off like an apple, strange seasoning and waaaaayyyy too expensive.

    Fried chicken should be reasonably priced.

    This trend of $15 burgers and fried chicken is missing the point: it’s a recession. Cheap food should still be somewhat cheap, despite the bougie trappings.

  5. I read on another website that they plan on opening a “ringside” in that location? (that’s the place that took over the three on the tree (or whatever it was called) froyo place. Don’t know if that’s true or not or confirmed, though. If they already have a plan in place, maybe that would explain the decision for closing it so quickly?

  6. And this was the problem. 2 people posted issues that changed. LeRoys lowered their prices significantly. Those lower prices also included a side. So you could have a 2 piece meal with a buscuit and side for about $8. KFC prices? No. But more reasonable than when they first opened. Had the prices been set this way from the beginning, I think things may have been different. Yes, there were issues with the product, but that’s expected at a new restaurant, but issues with the product and high pricing is a bad 1-2 punch! Another issue I saw was lack of repeat business. I enjoyed the food there, but I just can’t go eat chicken fried in pig fat too often. Probably once every month or 2. It’s hard to have a successful business when someone who really enjoys the product would only go 10x a year…

  7. What’s going on with all of these “restauranteurs” with such trigger fingers? 4 months is definitely not enough time to determine the success or failure of an establishment, particularly in a recession. The owners shouldn’t have even started if they were not prepared to go the long haul (or at least 8-12 months). What a waste of time and money.

  8. I was hopeful for something other than a new burger joint and I really wanted to like this place, but it just wasn’t that good. Couple that with the other issues already posted = recipe for disaster.

  9. @AJ, I did not know the prices had changed. I live near there and I like fried chicken. I should have been a regular customer. I went once, stared at the board with its obscenely high prices for about 5 minutes, and said ‘sorry, I’m going to go somewhere else. This is just too expensive.’ The woman in the line behind me also got back in her car and followed me to the Church’s on Bankhead.

    Obviously, I did not return, nor did I recommend the place. ‘Did you try Leroy’s?’ ‘I thought about it, but then I remembered that it is insane to pay $15 for two pieces of carry-out fried chicken, a side and a coke’

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