Last week, Kel Chavis filed a building permit application via real estate development firm Bain Associates LLC for a new restaurant, Kelz House of Grits, to be located in a 1,346-square-foot space at 1087 Euclid Ave NE in Little Five Points. The opening date is yet to be determined.
During a brief phone conversation with What Now Atlanta, Chavis explained that his new venture – a brunch joint – will open at midnight and operate into peak business hours, offering the community’s late-night diners something special.
Fans of Kelz Kitchen will recognize the business model from before COVID-19 when the restaurant would stay open until 6am on Fridays and Saturdays. Although those late night hours were briefly paused, they’ve since returned – albeit slightly truncated – to midnight, Thursday through Saturday.
Nevertheless, as Chavis’s wife and Kelz Kitchen co-owner Ty Johnston-Chavis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time, “We were one of the only locations that you could come to at 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning and get your surf-and-turf with collard greens and mac and cheese. So, that was really something that put us on the map.”
The Chavis family opened the original Kelz Kitchen in Downtown Atlanta in 2015, followed by a now-shuttered College Park location on Old National Highway in 2019. They specialize in dishes from the chef’s hometown of James Island in Charleston, South Carolina and his deep familial roots in the region’s Gullah Geechee community, with offerings such as a Geechee Shrimp Po Boy, Tilapia + Shrimp, Lobster Tail, and Kelz Famous Turkey Spaghetti, as well as classic soul food sides like collard greens, loaded mash, fried broccoli, and corn on the cobb.
