![]() “We felt there was a void when the Gyro Wrap closed,” Eells said. “We’ve been slammed” since opening earlier this fall, said operating partner Joey Eells.Įells and his partner started working to reopen the restaurant soon after Carter closed it. Now the Gyro Wrap has reopened around the corner on College Square, with a different model but pretty much the original dishes, and with Carter’s blessings-he helped them get the original Gyro Wrap recipes just right. “It would have been really hard to operate, to do that safely.” Looking back, “I’m kind of glad I got out of the business when I did,” he said. “I didn’t want to take the risk,” said Carter. He couldn’t get any help from the landlord, he said, and he could never get a clear explanation when he tried to find out how much financial liability he might bear if he accepted federal payroll loans and then was forced to shut down despite the help. UGA students went home and stayed there through the summer, while other residents hunkered down at home.Ĭarter had no way of knowing if there would be in-person UGA classes in the fall semester, the most important time of the year for downtown restaurants and other businesses. As COVID and fear spread in the following weeks, the possibility of selling the restaurant vanished. Carter was 66, and the time for retirement had come. (The late Russo was also the founder of The Grill.)Īthens-Clarke County’s sudden March 2020 COVID shutdown orders came just as Carter was preparing to put the franchise on the market. “It was just a perfect storm, all the way around,” said former Gyro Wrap owner David Carter, who’d run the place most of the time since legendary Athens restaurateur Bob Russo launched the restaurant in 1979. ![]() One iconic restaurant’s demise was a direct and immediate result of COVID, however-downtown Broad Street’s Gyro Wrap, shuttered in 2020 but now reincarnated and reimagined under new management in a spot just around the corner on College Square. The Varsity closing was part of a big real estate deal, with the Gordy family selling the property to Atlanta-based Fuqua Development. Ru San’s is closing as a result of disagreement between the restaurant and its landlord, its owner explained on social media. “We feel that it is time for us to focus on spending quality time with our family, who have been so supportive and understanding over the last twelve years,” wrote Heirloom’s owners, Travis Burch and Jessica Rothacker, in social media posts. ![]() Restaurants, of course, close for many reasons or combinations of reasons which may not have anything to do with the pandemic-retirement, real estate transactions, changing tastes. Today only two of those are open-Taco Stand and the venerable Mayflower. Then there were Butcher and Vine and Nedza’s in Five Points, and on and on.Ī 2013 article in the UGA student newspaper The Red & Black listed the “top five oldest restaurants in Athens” as The Grill, The Varsity, Taco Stand (on Milledge), New Orleans N’ Athens (formerly Harry Bissett’s New Orleans Café) and downtown’s The Mayflower, serving some of the best grits in Athens since 1948. There’s a “for lease” sign in what was Scoville’s Hot Chicken at the corner of Jackson and Broad Streets. It’s closed temporarily for maintenance and repair, according to The Grill’s website. ![]() Its doors have been shut for months after a reopening that didn’t take. There’s no such sign at The Grill downtown on College Square, just darkness. No delivery.” Lee Shearer A sign posted at Wok Star leaves no doubt about whether it’s open or not. “We’re closed,” says a hand-lettered sign in a Wok Star window. In August, Winterville’s Wok Star, a praiseworthy Chinese restaurant, shut down. Last year, it was the Varsity saying goodbye. As November drew to a close, Japanese sushi restaurant Ru-San’s owner announced it would be closing to merge with another restaurant in Oconee County. Later that month, the owners of Heirloom Cafe and Fresh Market announced in social media posts their last service would be Dec. The world-famous vegetarian restaurant The Grit served its last meals in October. Here in Athens, restaurant closings have become a staple of local news as well-known and iconic restaurants wink out even as COVID seems to be waning. Some sold their homes and moved into an apartment,” Bremer said. About 60% of them closed after the pandemic hit in February, 2020 about 4,000 closed for good, she said.Īnd for many, staying in business during the pandemic years has come at a price. In 2019, there were 19,000 restaurants in Georgia, according to Karen Bremer, president and CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association. These are hard times in the restaurant business.
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