Just seven months after being forced to close the flagship location of his popular chain Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, Derrick Hayes is about to open a new restaurant less than a mile away.
Big Dave’s will debut in the former Waffle House space at 300 Marietta St. with a grand opening celebration on Jan. 18.
The original downtown location closed in June after a burst pipe flooded the space. The pipe burst just a day after multiple water main breaks caused water outages throughout the city.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
“I can’t tell you the journey it’s been, but I’m looking on the bright side that it’s time to give Atlanta back its downtown location,” Hayes said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It was heartbreaking to be closed.”
The restaurant will offer the same menu as the other Big Dave’s locations, with multiple cheesesteak sandwiches and egg rolls. Recent menu additions include Halal beef and an 18-inch sandwich at brick-and-mortar locations.
“Halal is a big thing in Philly,” Hayes said. “I have a lot of Muslim friends I grew up with, so I know a lot about it. It’s healthier and better quality.”
The 18-inch cheesesteak is an homage to the Belly Filler sandwich served at a Philly restaurant. “I really wanted to introduce it to the South,” he said, adding that he wanted to provide an extra value option for families.
“A sandwich that big is going to bring people together,” he said. “If you take four people and one person isn’t getting along with another person but they have to split a sandwich, they’re going to have a conversation.”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
An outdoor patio, neon signage, giant cheesesteaks and egg rolls hanging from the ceiling and a custom-made Liberty Bell installation above the front door, a nod to Hayes’ hometown, are part of the new location’s design.
Hayes first started selling his cheesesteaks out of a Shell gas station on Winters Chapel Road in 2014, and gained a large following after Philadelphia rapper Eve raved about his food on social media. Hayes opened his downtown location in 2019 and followed that with a second outpost in Doraville.
The eatery, which is named after his father, now counts four locations around Atlanta, including one inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and outposts in North Carolina and Florida. Last month, he opened Seaboyz, a to-go seafood concept, at 2907 N. Druid Hills Road.
“It means everything to me to reopen in downtown Atlanta,” said Hayes, who is married to Slutty Vegan founder Pinky Cole. “I get to see my business back in the city that helped me build it, and I get to put people back to work. I was in a great location before, but now I’m really in a prime location, and I’ll really get a chance to showcase to everyone what we do. Sometimes you think something is a loss when it’s really a gain.”
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