Perla Taqueria, which opened in late 2011, will soon be closing. The Mexican restaurant opened in the former Mrs. Winner's / Del Taco location at Piedmont Road & Piedmont Circle, and after a slow start and a feature on Scoutmob, seemed to have developed a following. Perla ownership blamed the closure on a "high rent and not wanting to rise the taco prices." According to the same Facebook post, ownership is "planning to open another Perla in the future."
Perla's owner, Haykel Arfaoui, continues to operate his other restaurant, Cous Cous, a Mediterranean restaurant he opened on Dutch Valley Road last year.
In a strange scenario, Mama's Cocina Latina, which opened late last year in place of Taco Cabana, a mere three tenths of a mile away, will relocate to the current Perla space. Mama's sits in a freestanding building near the intersection of Piedmont Avenue and Cheshire Bridge Road, and is being displaced to make way for the new Fuqua Development project. The mixed-use project will reportedly include three hundred apartment units as well as 34,000 square feet of retail space, anchored by a Sprouts Farmers Market.
Current intel suggests that Perla will closed by month's end, with Mama's Cocina Latina planning to open in April.