Farm Burger Heading to Asheville
Decatur Metro | October 11, 2012
Tomorrow’s News Today reports that Farm Burger’s next location won’t be inside the Atlanta metro area. Heck it won’t even be located in the state of Georgia.
According to TNT, Farm Burger is following in the steps of another Decatur staple, Universal Joint, and opening a fourth location in Asheville, NC. Farm Burger will be located in the “historic Leader building”, which looks like it was just sold in January.
TNT goes on…
George Frangos, founder of Farm Burger, has been scouting other southern cities for his planned expansion outside of Atlanta and sees Asheville as a good secondary market considering its similarities to Decatur, home of the original Farm Burger.
So the question is: Is Asheville becoming “Decatur North”? Or is Decatur becoming “Asheville South”?
Photo courtesy of lumierefl via Flickr
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They also have a Doc Chey, which is always our first stop after our daughter’s week of sleep-away camp near Asheville. You, know, return to civilization and all that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take the “Karma Card.”
What Asheville has that Decatur doesn’t is a music festival as deeply cool as the Moog Festival, taking place in the next couple of weeks…
As much as I’d like to think of Decatur as Asheville South, anyone who’s been there knows that Asheville is still way more hip than our little town. When we open up something comparable to the http://theorangepeel.net/, we can talk again.
How does it compare to Eddie’s Attic ?
Both are cool in their own way, but the Peel is more a full-blown concert venue/club– not as small or intimate as Eddie’s. I’d give the edge to the Peel…
But in NC you can only fill house branded growlers at the breweries.
Your Ale Yeah, Beer Growler, Greenes, Oakhurst Market, etc.. jars are useless on that side of the border.
It’s actually the fourth location. Decatur, Buckhead, Dunwoody are already up and running.
Doh! Forgot about Dunwoody. Thanks.
Asheville South – Decatur still has a long way to go to rival that town, besides having many more cool bars and restaurants it has something Decatur will never have and that is beautiful scenery surrounding the town. I do love Decatur and don’t feel this comparison is a fair one – Asheville has an unfair advantage of being a larger city. We could compare it to Waynesville – a city about 30 minutes southwest of Asheville. A city I feel could be called Decatur north.
I don’t think the two cities can be compared until someone builds a massive private residence in Decatur then charges each tourist about $1,000 just to get a glimpse of it.
Awesome.
I think you have figured out the driving idea behind annexation of Methodist Children’s Home!
1) The city annexes the children home.
2) The city uses imminent domain to kick the kids out
3) The city sells the land to local billionaire, so they may build our own local Biltmore! (It’s only a matter of time before Tyler Perry burns down Dean Gardens, given his recent trouble with fire. Or Arthur Blank may want to live closer to town to enjoy his new stadium.)
4) Billionaire pays the city lots of property taxes and send no kids to our schools!
I love it when a plan comes together!
The only fly in that ointment is that a billionaire could afford enough smart lawyers and accountants to figure out elaborate tax strategies so they don’t owe any tax But maybe those tax strategies would include donating a $10 million a year to the Decatur Education Foundation with the express condition that class sizes be capped at 25 even with parapros.
Decatur has been taking cues from Asheville for a while. Our craft beer movement was/is heavily influenced by Beer City USA.
After living in Asheville from the mid 90s to 2004 we moved to Decatur, partly because we felt a similar vibe. In Decatur we have far fewer Trustafarians begging for money on the street. But also fewer Friday night drum circles downtown, which is a shame. While I do miss waking up to a view of the mountains, the economic opportunities here in a grown up metro area are much greater. Ultimately that is what drew us here from Asheville – jobs. Unless you work in a few select industries, create your own job, can telecommute, or can support a family by waiting tables or guiding rafting trips, it’s tough to thrive on a full-time basis in Asheville. It is a cool place. But it’s not paradise as some would make it out to be.
BTW – that Leader space was empty the whole time we lived in Asheville and only recently filled up. It’s great to see an quality tenant will take it over. Interesting that it took a business built on Decatur success to make it happen.