Derrick Hayes, the founder of Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks, calls the downtown Atlanta address of his popular local cheesesteak chain his “Rocky location.”
“It keeps getting knocked down and back up again,” he said of the restaurant at 57 Forsyth St. NW. “I can’t win for losing in this location.”
Four years to the day after the restaurant closed briefly due to damages sustained during protests over the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, it was forced to close again. On Friday and Saturday, it shuttered after multiple water main breaks caused water outages. As Big Dave’s prepared to reopen on Sunday, Hayes’ director of operations called to inform him that the space was flooded due to a burst pipe.
In addition to the water damage, Hayes lost a walk-in cooler’s worth of food. While his team is working on cleaning the space, he’s unsure when he’ll be able to reopen. He said he feels lucky that he could shift his downtown Atlanta employees to other locations in Forest Park, Doraville and Lawrenceville.
“In the past month, I opened a location at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and my first location in Charlotte,” he said. “I was celebrating all month, and then my pipes break. We’re confident we’ll get it back together soon, though.”
Hayes said he lost “tens of thousands of dollars” over the weekend. Between Big Dave’s and Slutty Vegan, the popular plant-based burger chain owned by Hayes’ wife, Pinky Cole, he estimates the couple lost more than $100,000 due to the water issues.
But while he’s going through a challenging time, Hayes said he remains optimistic.
“There are so many other good things going on right now,” he said. “I’m just going to keep my head up. I know this location is going to come back better, and I thank God I’m in a position where I can keep my employees working. This is my busy time, and I’m going to lose sales, but I can’t question God. This is just a bump in the road.”
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