By: Ian Milliken

• Choosing a unique and attention-grabbing name for a new restaurant is a major priority for most business owners.
• The growing restaurant market in and around Atlanta has allowed for greater opportunity as well as much greater competition.
• With competition for restaurant names so stiff, many feuds over names have bled into the courts.

MARIETTA, Ga. – Dirk Tendick first decided he was going to open up a pizza restaurant in early 2016. Boasting gigantic 30” wide New York-style pizzas, he needed a name that would stick in the minds of those that heard it. A name that said both “Sunday dinner” and “You will always have leftovers when you leave.”

“It’s really tough to make that sort of decision,” said Tendick. “It’s not the most important thing, but it is the first thing. It is what they’ll remember about your business.”

New restaurant owners constantly struggle with finding the right name for their business. It needs to be unique, but easily understandable. It needs to stay with their customers while getting the right ideas across.

Inspiration finally found Tendick one night while he was watching The Food Network, a few beers deep and desperately looking for any sort of idea. While leaning back in his sofa, the phrase “Pie in the Sky” suddenly popped into his head. Dirk quickly grabbed a pen and wrote down what he would finalize to be the name: Big Pie in the Sky.

“It just made sense to me,” says Tendick. “It was a phrase people already knew. It definitely got the “big” concept across. And even though it’s long, I feel like people won’t have any trouble remembering the name.”

With the restaurant, and the name, made concrete in his mind, Tendick moved forward to open his first location in Kennesaw, only to open a second location in Roswell just five years later.

Fierce competition in Atlanta

Atlanta has worked hard to earn it’s reputation as the foodie capital of the South. Boasting thousands of restaurants, citizens of the city have their pick of any sort of cuisine they may desire. This makes it particularly difficult to create a restaurant that can stand out among the massive crowd.

Conventional wisdom would have you believe that 9 out of 10 restaurants fail before their first year. This, however, has been shown to be untrue, with only about 17 percent of full-service restaurants fail in their first year, with a median lifespan of about 4.5 years. This is actually lower than all other service-providing businesses, in which 19 percent fail in their first year.

However, most restaurant owners are not interested in simply surviving past their first year.

“Of course I wanted the restaurant to succeed, but I also wanted it to become a community staple,” says Dirk Tendick. “I wanted to be able to expand all around the state, if possible.”

Disputes over names lead to legal battles

The issue of fierce competition is true outside of downtown Atlanta as well. Historic Marietta Square fits more than 30 restaurants together into about a 3-block radius. With so many options around, it can be difficult for a business owner to make his/her mark on the district. Frequently, these attempts to stick out from the crowd can lead to tension and feuds.

Local breakfast and lunch hot-spot The Marietta Local is dealing with one such feud right now. The restaurant, started by owner Jim Tidwell, first ran into trouble when it was revealed that another restaurant, named Local On North, would be opening in a storefront directly across the Square from them. For Tidwell, this was clearly going to be confusing to his patrons and quite possibly hurt his business.

“We already have people asking questions about it,” says Aaron Peterson, a manager at The Marietta Local who has worked there for over three years. “I honestly think it’ll be bad for everyone if they use the name.”

In response to the news, Tidwell filed for a restraining order against G.G. and Salem Rose, the couple behind Local On North, preventing them from using the term “Local” to refer to their new restaurant. The couple have previously opened other restaurants in Canton, Roswell and Duluth under the same name.

“The existence of a second restaurant named ‘Local’ so close to the existing restaurant called ‘Local’ causes confusion and damage to the Local, LLC,” says Senior Judge Adele Grubbs in her brief on the matter.

The Roses have stated that they plan to fight the restraining order, stating that the term “Local” is a generic name which cannot apply to a specific restaurant or business.

Sex sells in Atlanta

Starting a new restaurant in a city like Atlanta can be an incredibly daunting experience. The mere idea of competing in such a crowded market can turn many prospective business owners off the idea entirely.

For Pinky Cole, this was not a problem. It was a challenge. Having run multiple restaurants in the past, as well as working as a casting director for Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network and producing a television show with Maury Povich, Cole knew that she had what it took to make her mark on the overflowing food scene.

With that in mind, The Slutty Vegan was born. Made to connect with a young, more aware audience, the restaurant serves vegan burgers and fries; massive, sloppy sandwiches which have gathered an audience willing to wait in line for hours on end. And the name is just another part of the experience.

“At the end of the day, it has nothing to do with sex,” says Cole. “I know that sex sells, so I though how can I positively manipulate this. We want you to have an orgasmic experience and the ultimate feeling of euphoria that comes after having a vegan burger.”

The restaurant has been a massive success for Cole, with nearly 1,200 people showing up for the opening of the restaurant, just five months after the opening of her famous food truck.

“How can you not eat at a place with that name?” says Julie Newport, an Atlanta native who took time off on Tuesday afternoon to wait in line for a burger. “It’s honestly what made me first look into this place, and I have never looked back.”

Cole plans to open another location in Jonesboro sometime next year.

The future of the restaurant business

As the restaurant business continues to grow in the United States, it becomes harder and harder for new business owners to break into the industry. It has become absolutely imperative for any successful restaurant to market itself correctly and grow its brand.

For Dirk Tendick, however, the future continues to look positive.

“I hope to open a third location soon, somewhere with heavier foot traffic,” says Tendick. “I really think Big Pie will continue to grow around Atlanta.”

By: Rebekah Ozbun

SMYRNA, Ga.—Smyrna residents request that the city do something about unsafe driving on Matthews Street Monday at the Smyrna City Council Meeting.

“I come before you as a concerned father and citizen here in Smyrna,” said resident David Luke. “My kids and I used to practice lacrosse in the front yard, but recently while we were throwing the ball, it went into the street. Before the truck had a chance to even swerve, it hit the ball in the road and broke it, and we all know how tough a lacrosse ball is. My kids are scared.”

The major concerns presented by resident Cedric Lumston included the safety of families with children and pets walking on Matthews Street and Whitfield Street, the noise pollution caused by speeding cars and the fear of hitting a car when backing out of the driveway.

“Because of the increase in population in our city, the placement of the SunTrust Stadium and the constant construction projects in the area, people have been cutting through our neighborhood at ridiculous speeds,” said Smyrna resident Cedric Lumpston. “These factors make sense, but I don’t understand why the city won’t do anything about it.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of Smyrna has grown by about 1.1% since the opening of the SunTrust park in March of 2017. This population change has also shifted the demographic to a heavily young population, with the majority of Smyrna residents being under the age of 35.

“This change in population, along with the extended construction projects around the city affects the flow of traffic,” said Smyrna resident Forest Answorth.

“I have sent two letters to Smyrna city board, and I have had no response,” said Lumston. “I asked for the city to install stop signs, but I have heard nothing.”

“I have a 4-year-old daughter,” said Answorth. “If she is in the yard playing, there is no telling what could happen when a car comes racing down the street at 60 mph. Nothing is being down about this problem.”

These three residents living on Matthew’s street are requesting that the city do something to make their neighborhood a safe place again. Because of state law, the speed limit cannot be dropped to 25 mph, which was the initial request.

“I would like to see something happen,” said Answorth. “I don’t know what the answer is, but I want to see something done—patrols or stops signs or something.”

The Smyrna City Council will take time to discuss the greivances brought forward at the meeting Monday and will discuss a solution at the next Council meeting, which will be held July 11 in Down Town Smyrna.

By Jessica Baker

KENNESAW, Ga.-The Kennesaw City Council conducted its first of the month meeting Monday.

The meeting began at 6:30 p.m. with two items on the agenda for the evening. The first item was the purchase of cemetery lots at the Kennesaw City Cemetery; the second item was for approval of a Revised Final Plat correcting addressing in Phase I and the Final Plat Phase II in Villas at Hickory Grove.

Item No. 1 consisted of authorization of purchase of lots in the Kennesaw City Cemetery, in which the mayor had to sign the supporting deeds for those lots. Three cemetery lots were purchased by Patricia and Gene Henssler, who own and operate Henssler Financial, on June 13th and located in Section III, Plot 44 Lot D, Plots A and B. Another lot was purchased by another Kennesaw woman, located the same section, Plot 62 Lot A.

According to Councilman David Blinkhorn, it doesn’t matter if the person is local or not, anyone can buy a plot in the cemetery and the process is very simple. “Initially, they [buyers] would contact the city clerk and then they would discuss the options as to what part of the cemetery they want to be in,” Blinkhorn said. “There are some options they can choose from and then the city clerk would make all those arrangements and then ultimately, they are basically buying city property…she would do the paperwork and then it would come to us and we vote.”

Item No. 2 involved the approval of the revised Final Plat of correcting the address of Phase I in Villas at Hickory Grove, of which had been approved January 22^nd earlier this year. The form was submitted by Kerley Family Homes for property along Hickory Grove Rd.; the property spans 16.67+/- acres and was annexed and rezoned into the City Limits back in 2006. Kerley Family Homes was seeking approval of its request to finalize the correction of the property address of lot 69 as 4565 Grenadine Circle.

The process for purchasing land for a living development has a few steps. The council does not get involved in the actual purchase, as it is a person-to-person negotiation of the price for the lot.

“Once you have a plan in place and are going through the permit process, it’s mostly the planning and zoning side where we define whether it’s the appropriate use for that land or not,” Mayor Pro Tem Chris Henderson said. “[You would] get to a final presentation that would come to mayor and council where we would approve the concepts before you do any engineering design.”

The company was also seeking approval for its Final Plat Phase II of the project consisting of 62 out of the 82 total lots.

Also present at the meeting were six scouts from the Boy Scouts of America, who had come to observe the meeting and went to the mayor’s office afterwards with their parents to get a brief tour of the council building. The mayor spoke to them about government and how it should be run, let them ask questions and so on. “The mayor was a Boy Scout,” Henderson said. “He really knows the details of the merit badges, so if they’re here for community development things, etc., he tailors it to what their badges are for.”

Story by Ian Milliken

The Atlanta Municipal Court held session on Friday for multiple misdemeanor offenders to make their plea decision and be sentenced for guilty parties.

Judge JaDawnya Butler oversaw the multiple arraignments, which compromised mostly of traffic violations and the occasional missed court date. Throughout the hearing, multiple communications issues and misunderstandings gave Judge Butler and her court staff a chance to use the courts resources to help members of the Atlanta community.

One such occasion occurred when Jamal Ali was asked to step up to enter a plea. Ali, a thin, Somalia-born immigrant who moved to Atlanta in hopes of finding better job options, was brought up to the bench to answer for a left-turn violation.

While it was made clear early on that Ali was attempting to enter a non-guilty plea, he did not seem to understand the steps that were necessary to find an attorney or represent himself. Instead of directly answering Judge Butler’s questions, Ali kept trying to argue the case directly, which Judge Butler insisted was pointless, as he only needed to enter a plea.

After some back and forth, Judge Butler was able to ascertain that Ali spoke English as a second language, and that the language barrier was making it difficult for her to explain the steps that Ali would need to follow. Judge Butler was able to call a Somali-to-English translator and, after a bit more frustration, set him a bench trial date for July 30.

The court had further confusion during the hearing for Laticia Boyd, who APD charged with an improper left turn. When asked by Judge Butler if she understood the nolo contendere plea she was entering, Boyd seemed rather unsure, waiting several seconds before softly answering with a yes or no. Judge Butler immediately picked up on this and began to question if the woman was okay and needed further explanation.

“I’m sensing a lot of hesitance in your voice.” said Judge Butler, who looked toward the court’s counsel to further explain the plea to Boyd before she officially entered it.

As with any other day in Atlanta Municipal Court, Judge Butler had to deal with her fair share of no-show offenders. On this occasion, Officer Gonzalez of APD was in court to meet with Judge Butler for a case in which he was victim. The offender never showed up to court that day, leading Judge Butler to suspend his license and put out a warrant for his arrest.

“I was asking the guy some questions and he suddenly lurched toward me, shoving me to the side.” says Officer Gonzalez. “He ran off as I was getting up and I was unable to find him further. We picked him up later a few streets down.”

Judge Butler got another chance to help out with a court misunderstanding with the case of Jonathan Baker. Baker had previously been arraigned for a reckless driving charge, with his sentence being to perform 24 hours of community service and to enter a safe-driving program run by the state.

Baker’s case number, however, was incorrectly entered into the system, causing him to be rejected by the program. Judge Butler immediately asked one of her court officials to reach out to the program and figure out some way to get him temporarily accepted until the mistake could be fixed. Both Baker and Judge Butler were pleased with how quickly the issue was resolved, with Baker thanking Judge Butler emphatically for her help.

Atlanta Municipal Court convenes Monday through Friday at 150 Garnett St SW in Atlanta.

By Ashley Ausburn

            The East Roswell Economic Action Committee met Friday, June 28, to discuss the revitalization plan for the area at Roswell City Hall. The committee, formed in December of last year, aims to revitalize the east Roswell area in hopes of bringing in business and families through creating a detailed plan of action it will recommend to the City Council. This plan was detailed and discussed among the committee Friday, outlining the different target areas and specific goals the plan is to achieve.

            The committee’s plan for revitalization, presented Friday by committee member Alice Wakefield, aims to address what the committee believes to be the main issues east Roswell is currently facing: too much retail, low retail rental rates, the need to update retail structures, life span of big boxes, deliberate vacancies, crime associated with retail spaces and aging apartment complexes. In addition to discussing demographics and desires of the areas in question, the committee establishes the desired outcomes of the areas, or nodes, the revitalization plan will focus on. Three of these nodes discussed Friday include Holcomb Bridge Road, Centennial and Nesbit Ferry.

            “One thing that helps spur development is emphasis on infrastructure,” Said Wakefield. In addition to emphasis on infrastructure, Wakefield added that the plan is centered around 10 principles that help the committee decide what areas to focus on and how to approach revitalizing them.

            Each node of the project focuses on things that the surrounding area wants. For the centennial node, those priorities include a community civic center, pedestrian mobility and mixed-use paths to parks. The committee also aims to create a mixture of land use for the area including residential, office and retail.

            “What I took away was the community wanted a center where they could gather,” said Wakefield. “They wanted something more like a town square with opportunities for families and children.”

            The Holcomb Bridge Road node is focused streetscape and infrastructure improvements, multimodal transportation improvements and adjusting zoning classification to allow mixed-use office center. Better signage and ramp improvements are some of the examples the committee has come up for transportation improvements along GA 40O, and the committee said that improving design is one of their goals for this area.

            The last node discussed at the Friday meeting was the Nesbit Ferry node. With this area the committee members are planning to focus on diversity and density of housing, upscale retail and office and an activity center. In order to do this, it will require redevelopment of existing centers and redesigning housing and retail centers for different target demographics in the area.

            Trent Perry, one of the members of the EREAC, says that a lot of the recommendations the EREAC provides to the City Council have a lot to do with demographics, available market buyers, profiles and other considerations.

            “It’s obvious on the east side that we don’t have a large presence of businesses,” says Perry. “It’s important to evaluate what we do have.”

            However, the process of evaluating a business can be time-consuming. “To give you the size of a business we have to manually pull all the building permits and speak to staff,” Says Wakefield. “There’s no automatic process.”

            Amanda Reipe, vice president of Crown tenant advisers, said that in addition to the proposed plan, the EREAC should also think of new ways to revitalize the east side. Riepe suggested that the committee should explore the idea of partnering with landlords of properties in the target areas.

            “I wonder if there’s a way to partner with landlords to bring events to the communities,” says Riepe. “For example, partnering with landlords so they can say they’re going to bring the farmers market to their property like the one in crabapple. We need to make sure we’re working with the right people to spread into the east side.”

ATLANTA— Drag Queen Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker alongside Mayor Kiesha Lance-Bottoms read books to children at City Hall on Saturday, June 29 to promote diversity and inclusion during pride month.

“We know that diversity has a different look and feel in 2019 and its important that we reflect that in all that we do and all that we say and who we are,” Mayor Lance-Bottoms said.

Drag Queen Story Hour was hosted by the City of Atlanta and included a LGBTQ+ exhibit showcasing the profiles of 50 prominent LGBTQ+ community members including actors, activists and political figures. This exhibit was in celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn protests.

Mayor Lance-Bottoms, surrounded by children on the sofa, did the first reading of the book It’s Okay to be Different, which promotes diversity and acceptance. Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker read Mary had a Little Lamb and Ogilvy to children of all ages.

 “I think it’s a fantastic event and it shows children that its really okay to just be yourself, honestly,” said Devin Barnard, Board Member of For the Kid and vendor at this event.

Outside of City Hall there were Anti-LGBT protesters reading bible verses and handing out religious literature that said, “You need Jesus” to people walking into city hall to attend this event.

Counter protestors showed up holding “Jesus is love” signs and singing “My God is an Awesome God” loudly to drown out the Anti-LGBT protesters who were speaking through a megaphone.

“This isn’t something that God approves of and as a Christian it’s my job to bring people away from sin and closer to god,” Protestor Benjamin Bell said.

This event came after Drag Queen Story Time with, Gwinnett-native, Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker had been pulled from the events calendar for the Fulton County Library System in the Alpharetta Branch.

After learning of this, Mayor Lance-Bottoms reached out via Twitter to offer her invite to City Hall and remind the LGBTQ+ community that they are accepted by the City of Atlanta.

“Miss Terra Cotta Sugarbaker and all of our LGBTQ friends are always welcome at Atlanta City Hall. How about we host your next story hour?” Mayor Lance-Bottoms tweeted.

There were over 100 guests in attendance and there were also vendors present at the event promoting LGBTQ+ and providing activities and snacks for the attendees.

The event included appearances by the Hawk’s mascot and cheerleaders and the Falcon’s mascot. There were games for the children to play, face painting and other activities.

The event was free, but registration was required.

By Jessica Baker

By Jacari Brooks