Omnivore - Urban Cannibals to close in East Atlanta, reopen in Midtown

Urban Cannibals owners Calavino Donati and Doria Roberts announced Wednesday that they will not reopen their temporarily shuttered East Atlanta Village sandwich shop/general store after all. The pair closed Urban Cannibals indefinitely last month to focus on the launch of three new concepts — including a second Urban Cannibals location in Midtown — later this year. Urban Cannibals first opened in EAV December 2009.

The space at 477 Flat Shoals Ave. will not remain vacant long. Q Trinh of We Suki Suki, the tiny Vietnamese eatery a few doors down, is planning to expand her popular pho and banh mi operation into the existing Urban Cannibals space in the near future.

“Q approached us about expanding when she heard we were closed indefinitely to concentrate on our new spaces. After getting over the emotional aspect of the decision, we decided it was a good thing and were able to find a solution that was mutually beneficial for everyone,” Donati said in a release. “We’re growing and we were in a position to facilitate the same opportunity to a longtime neighbor that also needed to grow. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”

The news comes just shy of three months after Donati and Roberts first announced their plans to open an Urban Cannibals outpost in the former home of Midtown's Cruzado (and Las Palmeras before that) later this summer. The plans also include a tea house in Virginia-Highland and a full-service restaurant on Dutch Valley Road.

Like the original, the new Urban Cannibals will retain its focus on local food, sustainability, and community, but "it will have a larger, dedicated bodega on one side and a dining room and patio that will serve breakfast, brunch, their popular sandwich lunch menu and dinner on the other."

Tipple + Rose Tea Parlor + Apothecary (806 N. Highland Ave.) will be a full-service tea shop that will carry more than 100 brewed teas, morning pastries, High Tea service, tastings, and more. On the Apothecary side of things expect handmade salts, natural body products, local bitters, as well as various events related to homeopathic healing.

Full-service restaurant Madre + Mason (560 Dutch Valley Road), will feature "Latin meat-and-three favorites will be served for brunch and dinner accompanied with an extensive tequila and wine beverage list." The restaurant's lounge space will serve as "an event portal for private supper clubs, film screenings and social meet-ups for local organizations."

All three concepts are set to open late summer 2015.