"A Series of Unfortunate Circumstances"

A message from Lynsley one day last week - the new waffle sandwich place that replaced the burger place that replaced the empty space where Caramba used to be - was closed.  The brown paper is back up over the windows.  The notice that is posted on the door refers to "a series of unfortunate circumstances."

Of course I don't know what the specific "unfortunate circumstances" were but thanks to What Now Atlanta we do know about the trademark issues.  There probably was a way around that (pancakes could be substituted for the waffles, perhaps), but there was no way around this restaurant not being a good match for the neighborhood.

This space is in a small commercial area that already includes other restaurants.  There's Doc Chey's, which is a place to take the kids, but you won't linger over green tea after dinner.  There's Rosebud, where you can have your locally sourced chicken with the heirloom tomato salad, but I at least would not take my children there (although I am sure other families do).  There's the Family Dog, which is a popular bar that serves food, but don't even think about asking for the burger without the sauce.  (There was a review on Yelp complaining about the lack of a children's menu there.  Well, okay.)  There's Alon's, which is busy throughout the day with the morning coffee-and-croissants crowd, the lunchtime soup-and-sandwich crowd, and the after work get-something-so-I-don't-have-to-cook-tonight crowd.  The latter group could also get a casserole from Casseroles.

There also is not much parking.  Even with the small lot in front of Alon's, the small lot adjacent to Rosebud, the big lot in front of Doc Chey's, and the small lot behind the former waffle sandwich place, there is still overflow on busy nights to adjacent residential streets.  Which is fine -- I would rather have that than more parking lots -- but the reality is for all these places to be successful, a lot of people need to walk there, which mean they need to be appealing to people in the neighborhood, and worth walking to.

We used to walk to Caramba, when they were in that location.  Even though we might linger at our table, we almost always had margaritas, and I'm sure the owners made money on our visit.  We'd talk to the people at the next table, or visit with friends or neighbors who were sitting at the bar, or wander to the patio to say hello to someone we hadn't seen a while.  We liked the food, but it wasn't just the food.  It was a place where we participated in the social fabric of our neighborhood, and I'm sorry, you're not going to recreate that with waffle sandwiches.  

Yesterday morning, after a successful launch of a 2-liter soda bottle from a PVC pipe attached to a bicycle pump at Sunken Garden Park, Iain and I walked to Alon's to get some croissants.  The outdoor tables there overlook a parking lot and aren't obviously pleasant places to sit, but they were full.  It was late in the morning and things were winding down at the farmers' market across the street, but people were still walking through and lingering a moment to chat with an acquaintance.  Both of these places, Alon's and the farmers' market, are destinations worth going to on a Saturday morning.  We want to go to places where there are people.  And except for the part about launching the 2-liter soda bottle, it's not rocket science.