Octane Coffee Closing Emory Location
Decatur Metro | December 17, 2010 | 9:38 amThe coffee shop merry-go-round in Emory Village continues.
What Now, Atlanta? reports that Octane Coffee in Emory Village is closing its doors on December 17th and will be replaced in the new year by “Steady Hand Coffee”, the brain child of two current Octane baristas.
According to WNA, the new concept shop will include a “mobile unit”, which will start serving coffee at various outdoor locations in the Emory Village area beginning this Saturday, December 18th.
Caribou, Inman Perk, Method, and now Octane Coffee have come and gone from that single location in the last 5 years or so. It seems that the multiple Starbucks within a couple hundred feet of that location, ongoing construction to rebuild the street-scape, along with Emory Village’s inherent problems with attracting sustainable foot-traffic to the area, is a difficult hurdle for any caffeine emporium in that space.
Best of luck to the new owners! Hopefully fifth time’s a charm.
Forget coffee, bring back Dooleys! Or Taco Mac (except they’d probably make it like one of those shiny, new Taco Macs and not the old shack behind the gas station that I miss!)
They could bring it back and call it “Shackomac”!
Probably wouldn’t jibe with their newer corporate image, but I would definitely patronize it! Especially if Lil Dino’s was still across the street and they felt the need to compete with their $2 pitchers like they used to. And even more especially if they rehired my old favorite waitress with the big, er, um, pitchers…
I loved that little Taco Mac. We used to work out at the Decatur-DeKalb YMCA and then go drink beer and eat wings at that little shack. Added bonus was all the stray cats that would beg food as you sat on the patio. Good times…
Not a good business idea, IMO. There are COUNTLESS coffee spots on campus here at Emory, and now with the new Barnes and Noble bookstore with STARBUCKS across Oxford Rd from the village, not much demand for ANOTHER coffee spot. I would advise the baristas to re-think their plan.
SAACJack must have never had their delicious, albeit expensive coffee and tasty H&F Bread Co.-supplied pastries. The new owners are actually the old (Method) employees. Looking forward to checking out their coffee truck which is (I think) an old converted VW camper.
Yeah, I reported this last week (http://twitter.com/Carl/status/13350507275886592). What Caleb doesn’t mention is that Jordan and Dale were the face of Method, which essentially had an absentee owner, so they know the pitfalls of the space. I’m unsure why it’s hard for folks to understand the difference between what they do versus every other coffee purveyor in the area. You’d think the highly educated population nearby (both on and off campus) would “get it” (just the way folks clearly understand the original Octane concept and constantly keep the place packed). By actually owning the place, hopefully these guys can better execute a vision that extends beyond serving the most beautifully hand-crafted coffee beverages around.[img]http://flic.kr/p/5Z5Zo6[/img]
Not a great location for a local coffee shop if you’re targeting students, IMHO. While Emory Village is close enough for a meal, it’s not close enough to most campus buildings for a “quick caffeine fix”.
Despite its crappy, over-priced coffee, Starbucks has a strong enough brand that it can attract flow-through (drive-through) traffic. i.e. – non-local traffic
That place has the best coffee in Atlanta, no question. If anyone is wondering why people are obsessed about good coffee, try this place. Good luck Jordan and Dale on your new business!
These guys know their stuff. In the coffee world this place is equivalent to Brickstore Pub. It is a destination spot. Best of luck to them. I hope they’ll find a good purveyor of deserts, or chocolate to pair with their brew.
Caribou didn’t come to that location in the past five years. Caribou came there in 1995 and stayed for many years. Five or so years ago it closed up shop, and that’s when the parade of new coffee places started.
From my vantage point all of those coffee places were patronized frequently by students, even with the Starbucks a few doors down. But they were all study places, not places to quickly grab the first cup of the day. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing for a coffee place or not.
More to the point, though, with a few prominent exceptions, there’s almost NO business in Emory Village that has been able to survive the past 5-10 years.
Yeah, the only businesses that lasted more than 5 years are Everybody’s, Evolve, Starbucks, All Fired Up, Majick Touch Cleaners, Doc Chey’s, CVS, Dominos, Panera Bread, Shields Market, Jimmy’s Chevron and Supercuts. Saba must be close to 5 years and they came back after a fire. Rise and Dine packs people in daily and has long lines on weekends.
Evolve opened three years ago, but I take your point. I’m thinking of Cold Stone Creamery, One Hot Cookie, The Cedar Tree, Jagger’s, then Park Tavern, Jake’s, AM Photo, Sta Travel, Burrito Art, Smootie King, all the coffee incarnations, etc. And there are empty store fronts there that have remained empty for years. I don’t think it’s unfair to say Emory Village has had issues.
I agree that Rise n Dine seems to do very well, but I’ve always heard Emory Village’s problems stem not from a lack of customers, but from the rental rates, as Paul suggests below. I know Cedar Tree had been there for at least a decade and left for that reason.
Cold Stone pretty much went out of business everywhere including Decatur. AM Photo lost out to digital cameras and changes in technology. Clark Howard is always talking about how the internet has replaced travel agencies. The owner of Jaggers retired and closed the business. Park Bench was simply horrible. I’ll give you Burrito Art and Cedar Tree, but the smoothie places and One Hot Cookie are very narrowly defined concepts and menus. Often the gimmick wears off. Yogurt is the rave now, but is there a long-term market? (BTW Everybody’s closed their Virginia Highland business, and they had been there for 20 years.)
Rents? Who knows. The market has to figure that out. Vacancies and turnover send a pretty strong signal and tend to keep rents in line with demand. I think there are plenty of challenges in Emory Village. Parking is difficult and there isn’t a lot of housing within easy walking distance. I think some businesses overestimate the student market when in fact they are only in town for 8-9 months. The demographics and buying power are seemingly fantastic.
I think things will improve once construction ends. That whole area has always been a pedestrian disaster. Just walking along the storefronts, you’d have to scout where the sidewalk would end, would a car come barreling into a parking spot. The new streetscape has continuity, ramps, proper steps.
I see a lot of business at the Barnes&Noble Starbucks but that’s a real student hangout–it can get quite loud and crowded and the staff has a “food service” attitude (vs. the chill ‘tude you expect from a coffee shop). I only stop at the “old” starbucks rarely but it seems there are more mature patrons there. As to the Octane space, it’s got great outdoor sitting but hardly any indoor sitting and with all the construction noise, it’s hard to tell if you’ll have acceptable seating should you go there (maybe you are trying to have a meeting, maybe you just want to use your computer in a temperature controlled environment).
When Caribou upped anchor I considered opening something up there. Turns out this is some sort of sub-lease from Everybody’s and they restrict what can be sold there, e.g. nothing substantial to eat. Hence no Taco Mac, no sandwich shop, etc. What caused Caribou to leave was an enormous hike in the rent. When the revolving door of suckers finally stops spinning I hope that Everybody’s simply opens their own sandwich shop there which in terms of the layout, shared facilities etc., makes the most sense.
I could never figure out why Everybody’s didn’t utilize that space either! Whether a sandwich/take-out spot, their own coffee/dessert place, a larger bar area or whatever.
Octane’s coffee was sooo expensive! Not the place to go if you wanted to run in and grab a cup of coffee. I too was a Barista in a former life and yes while the slow drip is a novelty it won’t bring in the customers. My wish for Emory Village is that they would have a good place to eat with lots of seating. But that’ll never happen.
One of the inherent problems with Octane@Emory were the narrow range of hours. Bring a great roaster like Intelligentsia, offer exotic coffees, and stay open 24hrs. Be everything Starbucks can’t.