The restaurant group that owns Atlanta staples like South City Kitchen and Ecco is celebrating 30 years this April.
Fifth Group opened the first South City Kitchen in Midtown in 1993. Since then, the restaurant group has opened some of the most popular restaurants in the city, such as La Tavola, Lure, Ecco, and Alma Cocina.
While Fifth Group has been growing since that 1993 opening, a rogue blizzard almost curbed everything. According to partner Steve Simon, three weeks before the original South City Kitchen was set to open, a snow storm hit the city. At that time, there were no windows on the front of the building, and they had just finished the hardwood floors.
Credit: Fifth Group
Credit: Fifth Group
“Literally, we had three inches of snow on brand new hardwood floors,” Simon said. “We had a tree fall on the back of the house and knock the hood fan off, and knock the corner of the house off. It’s not for the faint of heart. There’s always something that causes a lot of adrenaline.”
Simon came to Atlanta in late 1992 with Chris Goss. The two had worked together at a restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, called Magnolias.
“The impetus was to do something similar to what we did in Charleston,” Simon said of the move. “There wasn’t really an upscale or a more modern version of Southern being done here then.”
According to Simon, Kris Reinhard, now a partner with Fifth Group, also worked with Goss and Simon in Charleston. He was still in school at that time, but came onto South City Kitchen in an entry level role soon after he graduated.
A lot can change over 30 years, and Atlanta’s dining scene is no different. Simon said that the biggest change he’s seen is the density of the city itself, which has led to a higher dentistry of restaurants and a higher caliber of restaurateurs.
“There was very little skyline in Midtown when we opened that restaurant,” Simon said. “What is now a high rise across the street and next door to us were literally parking lots.”
It might seem strange to us now to think of areas like Midtown as anything but the dining destination it is now. But over that 30 year period, Simon said, the density changed has seeped into smaller neighborhoods throughout the city. Numerous small areas, such as Candler Park and Inman Park, have their own dining personality. Simon calls these areas “micro-neighborhoods.”
Credit: Fifth Group
Credit: Fifth Group
“Really in the last five or seven years, we’ve really seen, as the density has increased, we’ve really seen a lot of neighborhoods become destinations for restaurants,” he said. “Pick what used to be a little sleepy neighborhood, and now there’s well-run great food and beverage options.”
Although the density change has been drastic, Fifth Group’s approach to new restaurants is still pretty much the same. Simon said the restaurant group is looking for areas that need great restaurants, even if the ones that might seem dining-heavy to the untrained eye.
“There is a version of being underserved even if it’s in a busy area,” he said. “We might go into a place that has a greater density of restaurants, but we feel like there still is opportunity. There’s either a niche that’s not being met, or we feel that the number of quality operators isn’t as high. Or, it’s just a really exciting market and we want to be there.”
Credit: Rough Draft Atlanta
Credit: Rough Draft Atlanta
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