Decaturite and AJC food critic John Kessler writes the sordid and complex history of Thumbs Up and Crescent Moon…and Thumbs Up restaurant over in Access Atlanta this morning.

Not that you need reminding, but when Crescent Moon blew up last year, DM inadvertantly became a clearinghouse of info and debate, thanks to frequent postings by wait staff like Looney Mooney and MyFavoriteWaitress, who eventually went on strike.  Hope they are much happier today!

Here it is.

Frequent DM readers will find both old and new info.  Probably most important, Rob says they should reopen as Thumbs Up in two to three weeks.

UPDATE: Steve…Carl sees your tip off and raises you a pic of the sign.   From the wording it sounds like they’ll be reopening under the same name.

Steve writes in that the previous report about Crescent Moon closing and becoming a Thumbs Up Diner may in fact be true.

“Apparently the rumor is in fact true. There are signs on the window today stating that Crescent Moon is closed, but will reopen after some remodeling with Rob in charge. (Carl, I can’t believe you didn’t scoop this)”

This new piece of evidence certainly seems to jive with the old rumor, but doesn’t yet confirm it will be a Thumbs Up.

UPDATE: Apparently the rumor is false.

Long Time Crescent Moon Waitress reports in with an update…

“crescent moon is SUPPOSED to be closing for good after sunday and rob is going to be leasing the spot out to THUMBS UP. i believe that this is really what is going to happen and i also feel like it will be a very great thing for all of us who are looking for a great place to have brunch again. keep your eyes open it should not take very much longer.”

Anyone want to confirm or deny?

Right now Thumbs Up Diner has three locations: on Edgewood Ave, Marietta St. and in East Point.  An Avondale Estates location recently closed due to the sale of the property…so it makes sense that they would look to reopen in the area.

So, I am told by a friend, says a sign on the door.

UPDATE: While a friend told me that a sign said “closed until further notice”, reliable commenters are now telling me the sign just says “kitchen failure”.

Not sure if that’s because the sign changed, or if I just misheard.

UPDATE II: Steve reports in the comments that the Moon in Decatur is again open.

UPDATE III: A comment over in the AtlantaCuisine forums (spawned from a previous post here) says that a sign at the Mall o’ Georgia location says its closed as of Monday…though they weren’t sure it was permanant.

Back at the end of August, The Deal Watch blog reported this additional tidbit about Crescent Moon’s current owners…

The owners of Crescent Moon, Global Restaurant Group LLC, have not registered with the Internal Revenue Service and have never paid payroll taxes, according to a motion filed by a creditor on Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. An IRS agent attended a creditors’ meeting on Aug. 21 and said that Crescent Moon’s owners have never filed a return for paying payroll taxes.

Oh but there’s more!  Read the whole entry here.

h/t: InDecatur

A recent post by “Looney Moony” explains why Crescent Moon wasn’t open today.

Sounds like the wheels are falling off…

We were closed today because we just can’t take it any more. The staff wasn’t given the food to do the job, not even the sub par food they were usually giving us. We haven’t had farmers market chicken sausage, free range chicken or organic field mix, homemade dessert or fresh OJ since they took us over. The cooks and management were always way past pay day. Enough is enough!

Though the message is a bit cryptic, it kinda sounds like the staff has gone on strike.  Will they be open tomorrow or is this it?

Stay tuned…

UPDATE: Make sure to read the comments from staff in the continuation…