Organic and vegan LaRayia’s Bodega is slated to open this fall on the first floor of Ponce City Market’s Central Food Hall.
The shop’s first location outside of Los Angeles will be a counter-service grab-and-go operation serving breakfast, lunch and dinner with Caribbean and Puerto Rican influences. The menu will include overnight oats and parfaits, Jamaican jerk jackfruit tacos with mango salsa, vegan ceviche, chili, cornbread and collard greens. Specials will change throughout the year with items such as soups and salads of the day featuring seasonal produce.
Drinks will include juices, lemonades and teas like Black Girl Magic Lemonade with activated charcoal and Moon Tea, LaRayia’s spin on a vegan chai tea.
LaRayia was founded in 2019 by LaRayia Gaston, who directed the documentary “43 Days on Skid Row.” After her experience living on Skid Row for the film, she founded non-profit Love Without Reason, which runs Lunch On Me, “an initiative dedicated to ending starvation while providing opportunities to enrich the mind, body and spirit of homeless communities,” according to a press release. Lunch on Me serves 10,000 organic meals six days a week to people on Skid Row; In Atlanta, the non-profit will hand out free vegan food at Woodruff Park every Friday.
Once open, LaRayia’s hours will be 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays.
The eatery is one of several set to open in the Central Food Hall in the coming months, including Vietvana, Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken and Atrium.
The first floor food hall expansion takes over the former Onward Reserve space (which has relocated to the second floor) and a former property management office. The aesthetic “will mirror the design of the main Central Food Hall with polished concrete floors, red accents, and elements honoring the character of the existing historic building, including exposed brick walls and open ceilings,” according to a press release.
A major expansion was announced for Ponce City Market in late 2020, with plans to add a four-story office building, additional shopping and dining space surrounding an outdoor courtyard and 400 units of what developer Jamestown described as “hospitality living.”
The existing development includes offices — more than 5,200 people work at Ponce City Market — and residential units in addition to dining and shopping.
Existing Ponce City Market food and beverage concepts include recently opened Bar Vegan, Pizza Jeans, Sweetgreen and Eleven TLC as well as longer-term tenants like H&F Burger, Farm to Ladle, Marrakesh and Ton Ton.
African restaurant Fad is set to move from 3565 Austell Road in Marietta to 6065 Mableton Road in Mableton before the end of the year, What Now Atlanta reports.
Two food and beverage concepts are among the new tenants that have been announced for the Avenue Peachtree City outdoor shopping center. Takko, from executive chef Tomas Lee, will serve Korean fusion tacos for lunch and dinner, while counter-casual restaurant Super Chix will offer crispy and grilled chicken sandwiches and tenders, fries, salads and frozen custard. Both are expected to open this winter.
Cips coffee shop and micro-roaster will open in the coming weeks at 2780 W. Village Drive in Suwanee, What Now Atlanta reports.
Atlanta-based burger chain Krystal has partnered with culture platform Butter.ATL to launch a dual-branded restaurant renovation at 626 14th St. NW in Atlanta. Designed by the Spice Group, Krystal x Butter “offers a culture-packed space that provides guests the opportunity to explore Atlanta’s spirit and history, and capture photos with murals, installations, and touchpoints that personify the city,” according to a press release.
Music and dining venue Perfect Note, which has a location in Alabama, will open on Windy Hill Road in Marietta, What Now Atlanta reports.
Restaurateur Jonathan Akly and chef Ian Winslade, who co-own Mission and Market in Buckhead and the forthcoming Tre Vele in Sandy Springs, have filed permits to open Zakia Restaurant in the Modera Prominence development at 3699 Lenox Road NE, What Now Atlanta reports.
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