King Barbecue has closed. Monday was the final day for the 'cue concept that owners Shaun Doty and Lance Gummere launched at Avalon in Alpharetta in late spring, replacing their fast-casual rotisserie chicken chain Bantam + Biddy.
The announcement of the closure on the restaurant’s Facebook page also came with a teaser: “While it has been incredible, today will be our final day of service at our Avalon location. As we will now be switching our focus to opening a new set of doors in early 2019.”
According to Doty, King Barbecue simply wasn’t profitable. “I’m proud of what we did. I’m disappointed I couldn’t make it work,” he said.
But Doty and Gummere aren't ready to pull out of the bursting barbecue scene just yet. "King Barbecue is a fully formed concept, with a pitmaster (Carey Wise) and a smoker," Doty said. He and Gummere are currently in negotiations to reopen the restaurant in a space in Buckhead. If all goes well, doors will open in time to cater to the Super Bowl crowd.
King Barbecue is not the first dining concept – or space – that the business partners have rejiggered. A few years ago, they turned the Bantam + Biddy spot in Midtown into continental bistro the Federal. Earlier this year, they reconcepted the Bantam + Biddy in Lenox Square in Buckhead into Tex-Mex eatery ATL Taco. Doty said that the fast-casual spot at that mall had "a phenomenal December."
While the pair have bid farewell to three Bantam + Biddy locations of late, they recently opened a unit in Chattanooga, Tenn. Another is slated to open at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in April.
“Hopefully, 2019 will be a positive year,” Doty said.
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