The front facade of Eats. The restaurant announced Friday, Oct. 3 it would soon close its doors after 33 years on Ponce De Leon Avenue. (Alphonso Whitfield/WABE)
On a busy weekday afternoon, Tucker resident Leland Robeson stands patiently in a growing line outside of Eats, a small but familiar community restaurant across from Ponce City Market.
Robeson, an avid customer since the 1990s, peers excitedly at the door, hoping to get a serving of chicken tortellini.
“It’s always a good time,” he says while waiting to place his order. “Always a little bit of a line at a door, which is a good sign for a restaurant.”
Slowly, but consistently, customers with sacks of takeout food exit the establishment as new patrons take their place. Some are first-timers excited to try their first meal. Others are longtime customers like Robeson, eager to pay their respects before the restaurant closes its doors for the final time on Saturday.
“I’ve been getting a lot of love, but it’s a little bit bittersweet,” Eats owner Robert Hatcher says, chuckling. “You want to say to some of them, ‘Where, where have you been?’”
The restaurant announced in an Instagram post earlier this month that it would be shutting down on Oct. 18 after over three decades.
Known for its trademark jerk chicken, Eats first opened in 1992 in its current location on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Other popular food items on the menu include its chicken lasagna, sweet potatoes and macaroni and cheese.
“Our love for this city and for every single one of you is beyond measure,” Eats said in the statement. “EATS has never just been about the food. It has always been about you. Y’all gave this place its heartbeat. The conversations, the laughter, the regulars who became family, the generations who grew up walking through our doors.”
According to Hatcher, the decision came after the restaurant had experienced financial losses, which he attributes to local construction over the past few years.
“I’m not gonna to blame it entirely on the traffic in front of here, but when the Beltline Committee tore up all the sidewalks from Freedom Parkway to Monroe and then Ponce City Market builds the Pottery Barn … it’s been a good run, but I think its day was over,” the 73-year-old says as he performs minor tasks throughout the restaurant’s dining room.
“No matter what you had going on in your life, it was just always a fun place to be. And everybody was nice to everybody.”
Jessica Williams, former employee of Eats
At an adjacent table with her teenage son, Randi Campbell struggles to hide her emotions as she reflects on the many milestones she’s experienced over the years.
“I was telling him the first time I had food with his dad at a restaurant was here. I remember breaking the news that I was pregnant here. I remember coming here the day I signed my divorce papers,” she says, holding back tears. “It’s special. It’s really sad to see it go.”
While enjoying her regular order — jerk chicken, collard greens and cornbread — she reminisces about her first time coming to the restaurant at 16. The community atmosphere and affordable meal options made an immediate impression.
“The prices haven’t really gone up and the decor sure as hell hasn’t changed… the same employees, like half these guys here, I’ve been seeing for 20 years,” she said.
“And this, walking into this restaurant, is a place that feels like home,” she added.
The front facade of Eats. The restaurant announced Friday, Oct. 3 it would soon close its doors after 33 years on Ponce De Leon Avenue. (Rebecca Etter/WABE)
The same can be said for Jessica Williams, a former employee who worked at the restaurant over a decade ago as a college student.
“No matter what you had going on in your life, it was just always a fun place to be. And everybody was nice to everybody,” she says with a smile.
When she found out the news, she made a point of coming back to say goodbye to many of the familiar faces she had once served or worked alongside.
“I’m sad. I’m really sad,” she admits, looking across the busy restaurant. “It was the place to be for me and my people. There’s not ever gonna be another place like it.”
“I love everybody that ever set foot in here, and we thank you for a beautiful 32 years.”
Robert Hatcher, owner of Eats
And the reason for its success throughout its long tenure? For Williams and several others, the answer, outside of great food and service, is Hatcher.
“He helped so many people out of a lot of really, really tough times. He was always somebody I could go to and talk to about anything that was going on. He was always compassionate, incredibly generous,” Williams says.
In between clearing tables and greeting familiar faces who have arrived for one last meal, Hatcher is not shy about being both reflective of the past and excited for the future.
He says he won’t miss the consistent grind of running a business anymore, but he will miss all the customers who he says made it all worthwhile.
“They should know that I love everybody that ever set foot in here,” he says. “And we thank you for a beautiful 32 years. God bless you.”
