ATLANTA — Call it the "end of an era." Call it the beginning of a fresh start. But whatever it may be, a long-lingering eyesore is coming down.
This week, crews began demolishing the site of the old Cheesecake Factory restaurant along a busy stretch of Peachtree Road in the heart of Buckhead.
Built in 1993, the old restaurant location at 3024 Peachtree Road attracted diners (including this very author) to a classic part of Buckhead, anchored by other staples like Houston's, Lenox Mall and others. In fact, Business Wire reported the old Peachtree Road location in Atlanta was the chain's eighth location.
Memories of summertime sunning on the restaurant's sought-after patio, as traffic rushed along one of Buckhead's main arteries, are likely burned into the psyches of many an Old Atlantan (like mine). But, at the risk of repeating a refrain that's now become all-too-familiar (and eye roll-inducing for outsiders), sights of the striking building being reduced to rubble is the sign of yet another chapter closed in the ever-evolving face of Atlanta.
The 9,000-square-foot, two-story building, whose dining room once spilled over with customers, had long-since been vacant after the restaurant's closure in 2013.
The iconic restaurant chain opened its newer, more than 9,300-square-foot location near Lenox Square at 3393 Peachtree Road shortly after, in June 2014, Business Wire reported back then.
Plans to demolish the old building, owned by developer Peter Blum, were submitted to the city's Development Review Committee in August 2020, nearly seven years after the restaurant's closure.
The proposal cited "unsafe conditions to the public and adjoining property owners," saying despite the building being boarded up and "secured on numerous occasions to prevent vandalism and unauthorized entry," the threat for the loss if life lingered.
Despite that, the structure continued to remain vacant as newer, ritzier developments cropped up around Buckhead (including the former site of the also-classic and once neighboring ESPN Zone, now a Restoration Hardware ... also owned by Blum).
It's unclear at this time what took so long for the building to be torn down, and what the future may hold for a one-time jewel of Buckhead.
Call it the end of an era. Call it the beginning of a fresh start.
But whatever it may be, one thing's for sure: an Old Atlanta staple is no more.
