Howell Mill breakfast and brunch institution West Egg Cafe closing after nearly 21 years

West Egg Cafe, the popular breakfast and brunch restaurant part of Westside Provisions District on Howell Mill Road, will close Dec. 29 after nearly 21 years in business. 

Ben and Jen Johnson announced the closure in an email to regulars and longtime supporters of West Egg Cafe on Thursday night, citing the end of the lease and year-over-year decline in dine-in business following the pandemic as reasons for the decision to close.

“Since the pandemic, we have seen a decline in in-person dining as people no longer work regular hours in actual offices and meet virtually rather than in person,” the message read. “We have seen an ever-growing percentage of our business move to online and third-party delivery services. Sales are down; costs are up.” 

The Johnsons own West Egg Cafe with Shelley Sweet. The couple and Sweet, along with Chef Todd Ginsberg, also own The General Muir and TGM Bread, Wood’s Chapel BBQ, Fred’s Meat & Bread, and Yalla under the Rye Restaurants umbrella. 

West Egg Cafe originally opened in the space now occupied by Lululemon at Westside Provisions District, relocating to its present location six years later in 2010. The restaurant became a sought-after breakfast spot on Atlanta’s west side, serving as a third place for weekday morning business meetings and the wheeling and dealing within Atlanta’s freelance and entrepreneurial communities. Members of nearby fire and police stations would gather at the long back table in the dining room for breakfast and brunch between calls.

For weekly regulars, West Egg Cafe was more than just a restaurant — it was a community hub.

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Crowds gathering to dine at West Egg Cafe on the weekends before the pandemic often resembled those of the restaurant from the 2012 “Brunch Village” episode of the sketch comedy show “Portlandia.” People would press into the small holding area beside the bar at West Egg Cafe, then spill out onto the sidewalk as noon approached. Hosts stationed at the check-in stand kept a watchful eye on the waiting list, while servers scurried around the dining room and covered patio delivering food, coffee, and brunch cocktails. Once people finished eating and paid their bills, tables were turned quickly to allow the next parties on the waiting list to be seated. 

The Johnsons said West Egg Cafe never fully recovered from the changes in service or the new dining habits of customers the global health crisis brought about for the restaurant industry. 

“Before the pandemic, we had no online ordering. You had to call it in and pick it up, and if we were really busy, we just didn’t answer the phone,” Jen Johnson said. “The rise of online ordering and third-party delivery and more people taking meetings on Zoom led to a decline in in-person dining, but that’s just one factor in the decision to close.”

When the couple opened the restaurant in 2004, this stretch of Howell Mill Road was still mostly industrial and included several empty parcels of land. West Egg Cafe offered residents, creatives from neighborhood studio spaces, and office workers a comfortable spot to enjoy breakfast and lunch in the area. 

That began to change in 2018, as developers started gobbling up empty lots between 14th and 8th streets on Howell Mill to build boutique hotels and mixed-use retail and residential complexes filled with new restaurants. 

“It’s a bit oversaturated and maybe we’re a victim of that [redevelopment] success,” Jen Johnson said. “We’re business owners, we understand it’s someone’s business, too.”

“There’s sort of ancillary effects of that construction when one lane of Howell Mill is closed for a large-scale construction project and it gets busy and causes too much traffic and hassle,” added Ben Johnson, who noted business suffered at West Egg Cafe when construction clogged Howell Mill as a major artery to West Marietta Street and Northside Drive.

However, the couple said there’s a chance West Egg Cafe could reopen in another location in the city, but in a smaller space. They’ve been talking with their current landlord and looking at other spaces for the last year. This includes rethinking if and how West Egg Cafe could operate in the current environment of remote work and with third-party delivery services taking up much more real estate on the dining landscape.

“We created a little community there, between customers and our staff,” Jen Johnson said. “Many of our employees have been with us for over a decade at West Egg – this being their first job as a teenager or after graduating from college — and where they fell in love with the restaurant industry.”

The Johnsons are in the process of finding new positions for West Egg Cafe staff at their other Atlanta restaurants.

“It’s hard for us to simply flip off the light switch after 21 years, so we have to try and address some questions,” she continued. “Like, are there viable leases for West Egg out there, what does West Egg look like in another location, and will it work?”

West Egg Cafe will close on Howell Mill Road after its final brunch service on Sunday, Dec. 29. 

West Egg Cafe, 1100 Howell Mill Road, Westside Provisions District. Open Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The post Howell Mill breakfast and brunch institution West Egg Cafe closing after nearly 21 years appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta.