George Frangos is bringing Farm Burger to Dunwoody. The newest Farm Burger will open in Georgetown Shopping Center, already home to Goldberg's Bagel, Starbucks, a recently enlarged Kroger and assorted other restaurants and retailers. Georgetown Shopping Center is located on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, just outside I-285. The first Farm Burger opened in Decatur in 2010 and was followed a by a successful Buckhead opened last summer.
Farm Burger is opening adjacent to the UPS Store in a space most recently home to Garcia's Mexican Restaurant. The space is roughly 4,000 square-feet, though Farm Burger will occupy only about 2,400. The balance of the space will be shared with Morelli's Gourmet Ice Cream! Morelli's, an award winning gourmet ice cream shop with two locations off Moreland Avenue intown will join Farm Burger in bringing their eats to OTP dwellers. The two will share the space and plan to maintain the same business hours. This set up is similar to the Caribou Coffee / Einstein Bros Bagels at Toco Hills (a former Pollo Tropical) although they have a sliding separating door, something I'm told Farm Burger / Morelli's will not have.
The Dunwoody area could definitely use more local options and I can think of no two better local favorites than Morelli's and Farm Burger to join forces for this OTP installation. Georgetown has in the past had multiple ice cream shops but Morelli's brings with it a local appeal that neither prior vendors had. Dairy Queen closed its freestanding outparcel location years ago and has since been replaced with a newly constructed Guthrie's, a fried chicken eatery. MaggieMoo's from Norcross-based Global Franchise Group had a location adjacent to Guthrie's but it now sits abandoned.
As far as burgers go, there really are no casual, or even fast casual offerings in the area. Across the street from the shopping center is a Burger King and not far away, McDonald's took over a former Del Taco / Mrs. Winners and built a new location. Farm Burger, with its grass-fed meats and house made sweet potato and FB fries are one of my favorite burger joints in town. Unlike other restaurants that claim to feature a "chicken burger" but actually just throw a chicken breast on two pieces of bread, Farm Burger has a legit chicken burger.
Having run into Frangos with signage in hand at the Buckhead location earlier this week, he tells me the hope is to have the overall space completed for both he and Morelli's by Labor Day. Frangos also told me he and his business partner have looked at a number of other southern cities but that this deal made the most sense. It's doubtful that more than one or two more locations would be added in Atlanta, as the group intends to remain based here but branch out.
Where is your favorite burger in town? Do you live in the area, if so, what other intown favorites would you like to see in your backyard? Will Farm Burger's opening increase your burger eating? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.