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| Former Tom + Chee in Alpharetta |
Grilled cheese eatery closes second Atlanta area location
Tom + Chee, the Cincinnati, OH based grilled cheese and tomato soup restaurant, has closed its Alpharetta franchise. ToNeTo Atlanta readers report that the restaurant closed this past weekend.
A Yelp.com user left a review this past Friday indicated that they enjoyed their meal that day. A reviewer on Saturday reported they tried to go to Tom + Chee for lunch around 1pm but found the restaurant closed.
The 2,342 square foot Tom + Chee in Alpharetta opened in February 2015 and was located in Stone Walk, a small strip center on North Point Drive near North Point Mall. The center is anchored by an approximately 12,000 square foot Guitar Center and is also home to Piece of Cake, Chicken Salad Chick and Salon Lofts, among other tenants.
The Alpharetta closing comes on the heels of the last month's closure of the Tom + Chee on Howell Mill Road in West Midtown. The Buford franchise, owned by the same group as the West Midtown restaurant, gets my vote for next to close with the Kennesaw location likely to be the last one standing locally.
After receiving an equity investment from "shark" Barbara Corcoran on ABC's Shark Tank in 2013, Tom + Chee began to rapidly expand, growing from three locations to upwards of 50 with reportedly "over 25,000 franchise requests."
Franchised Tom + Chee restaurants in O’Fallon, MO, Lexington, KY and Louisville, KY closed last month as well.
Overall, franchisees have closed over a dozen Tom + Chee locations over the past couple of years including one in Carrboro, NC that closed last year after six months in business.
The former Tom + Chee in West Midtown is expected to reopen later this year as Holler & Dash, a new breakfast and lunch restaurant. There is no word yet on what may take the space of Tom + Chee in Alpharetta.
Are you surprised to see Tom + Chee struggling so much? Were you a patron of Tom + Chee in Alpharetta? What would you like to see open in place of Tom + Chee in Alpharetta?
Please share your thoughts below.
