Babette’s Cafe is closing its doors for good after 30 years as “all good things must come to an end,” Owner Marla Adams announced Tuesday in an email to patrons.
“I’ve written a couple of long letters over the last few years about retiring, failing at retirement,” Adams said. “But here I am, ready for a new chapter in my life.”
As Adams prepares to retire, the owner and chef will shutter the restaurant after Sunday, May 8, 2022, “our last performance of this crazy show called Babette’s Cafe.”
“It has been my home, and many of yours, since October 1992,” Adams said. “I am so fortunate to have been able to have a career as a cook, a chef, a restaurateur. There is no other career that would have given me such joy, excitement, and camaraderie.”
Adams plans to travel, go camping with the restauranteur’s dogs, and “put my feet in the dirt in my garden.” Adams will “spend time with my family. I will rest. I will try to find peace and ease. I will sit by the ocean in Scotland. I will work on a cookbook. I will hold close memories of evenings with you. You and Babette’s will always be part of who I am.”
It’s unclear if a new restaurant is set to take Babette’s place, at 573 North Highland Ave NE, but Adams is not selling Babette’s Cafe, nor any part of it.
“At this time, the business dealings are confidential,” Adams told What Now Atlanta in an email Wednesday. “I really do not know what will come of the space. I am taking Babette’s recipes with me and am vain enough to not want to turn my baby over to anyone else. [I] have been in the restaurant business since I graduated from college. Time to live a different life.”
Editor’s note: this article was updated Wednesday with comments from Adams.
