Stir-fry returns to Westside in early 2016 with One Rooster.
Mike Blum, the founder of West Midtown‘s popular stir-fry concept The Real Chow Baby, will open a similar concept called One Rooster at 1016 Howell Mill Road in the same space Chow Baby occupied before its December 2014 closing.
“The landlord came to me and asked if I could get Chow Baby back to the old days, so I signed a ten-year lease and we gutted the place,” Blum told What Now Atlanta (WNA) in a telephone conversation Thursday.
Blum sold The Real Chow Baby in 2006 and didn’t care for the direction the restaurant went afterwards.
“We had to rename this concept because we sold the trademark, but also because we don’t want to be associated with what Chow Baby became,” Blum revealed.
The new design at One Rooster will feature two separate bars. One will serve a variety of bubble tea and shaved ice, and the other a “Trader Vic’s tiki-style bar”.
The menu will be a Hawaiian-Polynesian version of Mongolian cuisine, keeping the stir-fry style that made Chow Baby a Westside staple.
For Blum, who also co-owns West Midtown’s Le Fat and Inman Park’s Miso, the return to 1016 Howell Mill Road goes beyond boba and beef.
“This was my first location, so it’s coming full circle and going back to where it all started. The neighborhood really embraced us the first time, and I hope that’s the case again.”
Ten years after leaving the Westside space, Blum plans to open One Rooster in early 2016.
What are your thoughts on the return of stir fry to 1016 Howell Mill Road? Let us know in the comments section below!
4 Responses
Great concept! I think it’s just what West Midtown needs. As a regular of Le Fat I can’t wait to eat at One Rooster.
Can’t wait to try One Rooster. Please keep us posted on the opening date.
Totally not interested. The food wasn’t good before – just cheap, And, there’s no reason to believe it will be any better this go around.
Jake Coleman, you DO realize that it was “Create Your Own Stir-Fry” at Chow Baby, right? That, upon choosing any number of raw vegetables, meats, and sauces, you could make whatever you wanted, and if you didn’t like a certain combination, you could go back for free and try again? …you saying “the food wasn’t good before…” simply expresses your inability to concoct a meal void of any pre-microwave instructions. I.E., it wasn’t that hard…