A popular breakfast joint is finally resurfacing. Hot Betty's Breakfast Bar, which opened on Main Street in Tucker in 2020 and abruptly closed in September 2022 due to a reported rent dispute, is reopening in Stone Mountain!
Hot Betty's will open in a nearly 5,000 square foot outparcel building beside existing eatery Stone Mountain Pizza Cafe. A business filing from 2022 indicates that something called "Phoenix Smoke Shop & Lounge" was to have opened in the space but seemingly never did. Online research suggests the space's earlier tenant, a local Re Max real estate office, closed at least fifteen years ago with the suite having sat vacant in the years since.
The new Hot Betty's - at 5370 Stone Mountain Highway - would be more than double the size of the original location at 2316 Main Street which measured about 2,100 square feet. In addition to more interior space, the new Hot Betty's will also have a 400 square foot patio complete with bocce ball, cornhole and other outdoor games.
The former Tucker outpost, situated in The Shops at Tucker Depot alongside popular local eatery Local 7, remains vacant, but a new location of PERC Coffee is opening next door. Hot Betty's Stone Mountain is about seven miles and 15 minutes from the previous Tucker location.
In 2021, Hot Betty's owner Shea Powell announced that she had bought Tucker House, the famous yellow cottage at the corner of Lynburn Drive and Lawrenceville Highway, with plans to turn it into a restaurant. The costs of converting the building to a restaurant were reportedly significantly higher than expected and those plans never materialized.
Powell, a resident of Smoke Rise, a community between Tucker and Stone Mountain, had hoped to reopen her restaurant in Tucker, but those plans fell through. In Stone Mountain Square she found a larger space and plenty of parking still within a short drive of her former Main Street spot.
In an interview this week with ToNeTo Atlanta, Powell also indicated she plans to offer more dinner options and feature late night options, too. Select breakfast items will be served all day.
Hot Betty's original Executive Chef is not involved in the new location, with Powell telling ToNeTo Atlanta that she is actively looking to hire for the position.
Not far from Hot Betty's, Fuqua Development is looking to create a mixed-use project that is likely to include a Costco and Whataburger, among other things, on land previously home to a large tennis facility used in the 1996 Olympics. The new restaurant is also around the corner from Netherworld and about three miles from Stone Mountain Park.
If all goes according to plan, Powell hopes to have the new Hot Betty's open by March.
Are you excited to see Hot Betty's returning? If you made it to their Tucker location, what was your favorite menu item? What kinds of things would you like to see offered on the expanded dinner menu at Hot Betty's?
Please share your thoughts below.