Au Pied de Cuchon to shutter this fall

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InterContinental Buckhead’s 24-hour European brasserie to reopen as new concept


UPDATE (JULY 22, 2011): Oprah’s Chef to open Buckhead restaurant

Au Pied de Cochon, Buckhead’s 24-hour European brasserie, will close by fall of this year, according to Patrick Birchall, general manager at the hotel.

Located on the ground floor of the InterContinental Hotel at 3315 Peachtree Road, the restaurant will reopen as a new concept, Birchall told What Now Atlanta over the phone Monday.

“Restaurant’s are only fashionable for a certain period of time,” Brichall said. “We are hoping to operate a new restaurant by fall.”

Recent reports suggest Art Smith, Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef for several years, will act as chef for the hotel’s new restaurant.

“Working with Art Smith has not been finalized,” Brichall said. “That was posted without all of the facts.”

When a successful hotel can’t keep their in-house restaurant alive, what does it say about our city?

Developing…

Au Pied de Cochon
3315 Peachtree Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30326

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

Caleb J. Spivak

19 Responses

  1. It says what we’re realizing more and more – Atlanta supports chain restaurants, Buckhead Life, Fifth Group, Metrotainment, and Here to Serve. Anything else that falls outside of those groups will be challenged in this city.

    Bacchanalia is an exception to the rule. They’ve managed to survive due to the growth and success of the White Provisions district.

    It is pretty pathetic when a hotel restaurant can’t survive. I doubt that Nikolai’s Roof in the Hilton Downtown makes a lot of money, but they haven’t closed it.

  2. In defense to hotels, it’s extremely hard to get people who aren’t staying in the hotel to come to the hotel to experience their restaurant. There’s a preconceived notion that hotel restaurants are mediocre at best due to past hotels only having restaurants out of necessity for their guests.

    Nowadays, hotels are pushing the envelope with restaurants; they are reaching out to Celebrity Chefs as well as well-known restaurant establishments to occupy and run the kitchen. Embassy Suites is pairing with Ruth’s Chris, and hotel such as W are pairing with companies such as Culinary Concept by Jean-Georges and Bistro Laurent Tourondel to create rapport for having a restaurant where not only guests will want to dine, but also locals will take a liking to.

    Articles like this just foster the idea that hotels have bad restaurants; no restaurant will succeed without marketing nor will any restaurant succeed if articles like this dissuade people from ever trying them.

  3. It says Bistro Niko is better. Also what is with the snobs in the city considering anyone with more than one location to be a chain? Applebees is a chain, Chili’s is a chain,Buckhead Life, Fifth Group,Here to Serve,and Concentrics are all local restaurantuers with multiple concepts, BIG DIFFERENCE. Stop being so snobby. Using a concept that describes the Olive Garden to describe Atlanta Fish, South City Kitchen, Two Urban Licks, etc. Doesn’t make you sound intelligent, it makes you sound like a pompous fool.

  4. Hey Jonathan-
    Bacchanalia is owned and run by the same people who have brought us Quinones, Abattoir, Star Provisions, and Floataway Cafe. Just because a smart, local restauranteur can open many, successful, innovative concepts in our city does not make it a bad thing. Personally, those are some of my favorite restaurants in the city.

  5. Exactly JT. People here are so irrational. There are TWO French concepts across the street from each other. Bistro Niko is obviously more popular. Maybe all this means is that a different concept will do better…

  6. @JT & Alexander, Maybe I missed it, but I don’t think anyone said anything about different concepts being a “chain”. Althought the same concept, in multiple locations, is a chain. I’ve said that a number of times – Just because the chain is “local” (like Flying Biscuit, or TacoMac) doesn’t make it any less of a chain.

    I’ve got nothing against the “restaurant group” method. I think Fifth Group & Star Provisions have some of, if not the best restaurants in the city. They’re people who know what they’re doing when it comes to food, cocktails, and environment. TacoMac and Hudson Grill know how to make a sandwich and hook up television sets, neither of which require any particular set of skills. When Fifth Group opens up a new spot, they add value by creating something new and unique, and implementing it. When TacoMac opens a new spot, they’ve just rolled out another pre-fab spot off the assembly line of boring food and banal environments.

  7. Too bad Bacchanalia is also on life support and the plug will be pulled sooner rather than later.

    Btw- French cuisine does not have an audience in Atlanta. While Bistro Niko’s food is decent and French influenced, but by no means is it a French restaurant.

    BLT is NOT owned by Laurent anymore, he sold his share and use of his name a long time ago after a dispute. Nor is Spice Market by Jean-Georges, the hotel runs this restaurant, no wonder the food is so dreadful. JG has written this location off a long long time ago.

    Speaking of celeb chef restaurants in Atlanta, Craft closed because they weren’t making any money. Period. Better to cut your losses earlier than later. Tom got bad advice opening it in the beginning but got great advice to close it asap, unlike 5th Street Cafe that was “hemorrhaging” cash because of AD’s ego from BBB.

    Bottomline: No one is going to miss or cry over APdC’s closure.

  8. Urbanist, do you argue just for the sake of arguing? I said nothing to you or about you. Jonathan refered to Fifth Group, Here to Serve, etc… as chains. They are not,as you said. You managed to argue with me and agree with my point in the same post, impressive. But, by your logic South City Kitchen has multiple locations, does that make them a chain and by definition inherently evil and drab with horrible food?

  9. Well, JT, if you want to split hairs…

    Jonathan didn’t call Fifth Group, H2S, etc. chains. He said “Atlanta supports chain restaurants, Buckhead Life, Fifth Group, Metrotainment, and Here to Serve. Those little things we call commas are used to separate items. The intent was to imply that Atlanta supports chain restaurants AND all those groups. Simple grammar.

    I made the comment, because there have been multiple other posts where people have had the debate over what is and isn’t a “chain”. In some of those, people argued that places like TacoMac weren’t chains because they were local. I thought you might have been referring to those conversations. It is my fault entirely, that I didn’t realize that you had not put the grammatical pieces together (what some refer to as “reading”) in order to comprehend what Jonathan was saying. My apologies.

  10. Actually, my post might have implied that I was comparing the local concept restaurants as chains. Had it read “chain restaurants SUCH AS Buckhead Life, Here to Serve…” that would have lumped those concepts in with chains. Instead, my post was intended to make a distinction with the use of commas between “chain” and the local concepts.

    Anyway, trust me – I know the difference. There’s nothing wrong with the local concept groups. I’m surprised at how my post was interpreted!

  11. It confirms that it’s a dog eat dog world especially in the food business. Even people of wealth are looking for more affordable food options these days. The social mood has changed and businesses of all kinds must adapt to what the buying public wants. The move away from so many 5 star restaurants with high prices is not necessarily a bad thing as plenty of restaurants have launched successfully serving sophisticated food at lower prices and are very successful such as Top Flr! Unlike most large cities hotels in Atlanta are not really a place where locals frequent. Moving forward hotels need to figure out how to get locals to dine in their establishments and to keep the buzz going with special offerings etc… Maybe a special menu before 6 p.m. and after 11 p.m. Scout Mob is another idea which is hugely successful. You give someone a ½ price meal one time and if the food is good people will return at retail prices.

  12. Urbanist didn’t you say on a past thread you were moving to NYC or San Fran or somewhere you decided was better? It’s been awhile, do you need a ride, some cash to get started? Because I’m sure the folks that read this blog would be glad to help.

  13. To get back to the topic of Pied… I took my mom there for a treat for breakfast and was horribly disappointed. It was just a hotel buffet like at the Marriott. Good riddance! They didn’t even have espresso, just normal crap drip coffee.

  14. Per another website, this space will not be a no name restaurant, but will be a restaurant owned by Art Smith (Oprah’s chef). He owns restaurants in DC and Chicago.

  15. If Art Smith were to take over the space, that would be great. It seems odd, however, that someone like that would want to create his own concept, run his own restaurant, and not identify it with any sort of name/branding.

  16. i will say it again.. food has to be good and the service has to be even better… also you have to let people know you exist…. look at the type of clientele you are bringing into the hotel….do you really think that the people who frequent the hotel are interested in eating french food everyday while they stay there? NOT… this is atlanta ga. honey people want atlanta/american food more than french food no offense but seriously…… hopefully a different concept will help…. I just wish people in this city would stop trying so hard with wanting to compete with NYC or MIA or LA… we are Atlanta… enough said

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