Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Two and a half years after opening, Sidelines Grille in East Cobb has been sold, and the space it occupied in the Stonewood Village Shopping Center (4719 Lower Roswell Road, Suite 4200) will reopen as a different sports bar later this fall.
That’s according to a sign we saw on the doors Monday afternoon when we went by.
The notice said that a Scoreboard Social location will open there in November.
Based in Naples, Fla., Scoreboard Social is a sports bar business that filed business organization paperwork with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office on Aug. 4 as Scoreboard Social East Cobb, LLC.
Sidelines Grille, which originated in Cherokee County, opened in East Cobb in March 2024 and has remaining locations in Canton, Woodstock, Hickory Flat, Cartersville and Jasper.
According to its website, Scoreboard Social offers a similar menu, with traditional sports bar fare and meat, chicken and seafood entrees, desserts and a kids menu.
Urthy closing at Woodlawn Square
Nearly three years after opening her boutique body- and skincare store at Woodlawn Square Shopping Center, Urthy founder and owner Jen Rotondo is closing it down soon.
She announced last week that she’s shuttering both the in-person location and her online store, “after a lot of thought.
“Businesses have seasons, and I’ve reached the point where I know it’s time for this one to end. I could keep pushing,” Rotondo wrote in her customer e-mail newsletter. “I could keep pouring more money, more time and more of myself into trying to make Urthy bigger.
“But I don’t want to do that anymore. And strangely, once I finally admitted that to myself, I knew it was the right decision.”
Rotondo (whom we profiled when Urthy opened in November 2023) said that “we built far more than I ever imagined. We created products from scratch. We mixed thousands of custom scents at the Blend Bar. We helped people understand their skin differently. We made things I am incredibly proud of.”
She said she’ll announce when she’s closing the doors and that sales are underway for both inventories.
“For now, I mostly want to say thank you. Thank you for walking through our doors. Thank you for trusting things I formulated and made. Thank you for telling your friends about us. Thank you for coming back. Thank you for letting this crazy little idea of mine become a real company.
“I love Urthy. I always will. But I’m ready for whatever comes next.”
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Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Jasmine Chen’s loyal customers “have given me the power” as she reopens her restaurant. ECN photos.
Exactly 364 days after her restaurant was destroyed in a fire, Jasmine Chen will finally get to serve her customers again.
Next Tuesday, she’ll start a “soft opening” of her renamed and relocated Chin Chin Chen Asian Fusion restaurant, before holding a grand reopening and ribbon-cutting on Saturday, Sept. 5.
It’s been a difficult and challenging year for Chen, whose ownership of Chin Chin on Johnson Ferry Road next to the Waffle House spanned 16 years.
It was her abiding passion—and not just a business—and where her three children practically grew up. As a single mother, the restaurant was her family’s sole source of income.
The fire broke out after 1 a.m., hours after she had gone home. Chen said she raced back to Chin Chin in her pajamas only to see fire crews and billowing smoke, and the charred outlines of the standalone building.
The roof had collapsed and firefighters fought the blaze for hours, well into the daylight.
“I had a hard time sleeping, for a month after that,” Chen said.
“Every day, I go to work. I woke up the second day and said, what do I do now? There was nothing to do. What can I do?
But Chen vowed early on that she would start over, no matter what.
The remains of the Chin Chin restaurant after a Sept. 2, 2025 fire.
She just didn’t know how that would come about, or what it would take.
“All of our memories have been here,” Chen says of the East Cobb community she calls home.
“That’s why we want to stay here.”
Finding a suitable location for her new restaurant took some time. After looking at several locations, by January she was able to secure a lease at what was a Zaxby’s at 3030 Johnson Ferry Road.
After that, it was a time-consuming task to renovate the interior of the 3,200-square-foot former fast-food restaurant—the old Chin Chin space was 4,000 square feet—and to carefully reappoint everything.
While the dining space is smaller, there is more ample parking at Chin Chin Chen, which fronts the Northeast Cobb YMCA.
Chen ordered furnishings, wallpaper, lighting and kitchen equipment that were imported from China, including dinner plates.
The dining room seats 80, and she’s waiting for a few more tables to arrive before the reopening.
The last few weeks have been hectic, with final inspections and permitting, but Chen is taking a deep breath of relief that she can get back to going what she loves the most.
Her family, friends and many patrons have done more than keep her spirits up.
“They have taken good care of me,” Chen says of the emotional support she’s received in the last year.
“They have given me the power. Right now, I feel so much power.”
Updating the menu
The name change reflects Chen’s desire to keep her restaurant venture independent, and to acknowledge changing tastes with some of her customer base.
The menu retains the classic Chinese fare that Chin Chin has served up for three decades, predating Chen’s ownership. The “Asian Fusion” refers to the addition of dumplings and ramen on the menu, due in large part to younger customers.
The homemade dumplings in particular, she says, “are very popular” with younger people, as are varieties of bubble tea and other tea-based specialties that are on the new menu.
They include everything from Boba milk tea to passion fruit green tea, while there will be a pork soup dumpling dish, as well as fried pork buns.
“We want to serve to any people,” Chen said.
Over the last year, she discovered that her new location is closer to a portion of her customer base, and says that many of them have told her they live off of Post Oak Tritt Road and Sewell Mill Road.
She said she can’t wait to see so many of them, especially since they have kept her going during an arduous time.
“They just gave me all the power,” she said.
During the soft opening (Sept. 1-5), Chin Chin Chen is offering customers 20 percent off their orders—the hours are from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The grand reopening will include special entertainment and public officials will be on hand for the ribbon-cutting.
“Our restaurant has truly risen from the ashes,” Chen says.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Waffle House is mixing up its menu in a novel way, and one of its restaurants in East Cobb is part of the experiment.
The Atlanta-based Southern 24/7 chain announced Wednesday that it’s offering seven kinds of breakfast, lunch-dinner tacos at 45 select locations in metro Atlanta.
One of them is the Waffle House at 621 Johnson Ferry Road, across from Parkaire Landing Shopping Center.
According to the location’s menu, the breakfast taco options are bacon, egg and cheese; chicken sausage, egg and cheese; sausage, egg and cheese; and ham, egg and cheese.
Customers can order chicken melt; patty melt; and cheesesteak melt tacos on the lunch-dinner menu, all served with onions.
Like everything else on the Waffle House menu, all varieties of the tacos—served in flour tortillas—can be ordered at anytime of the day.
Waffle House has over the years tried or added items to its traditional menu, including protein bowls that are standard at most locations.
Waffle House hasn’t indicated how long the taco test run will last.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Ever since opening at the Piedmont Commons Shopping Center (1050 East Piedmont Road) more than a decade ago, Righteous ‘Que has been closed on Sundays.
That’s about to change as the restaurant will be open for a few hours each Sunday, starting this coming week.
The Sunday lunch hours are from 11:30-3:30 p.m.
The change is the latest evolution of a Southern barbecue spot that’s had success what had been a tricky location for restaurants.
Righteous ‘Que was started by Patrick Verzone as a home cookout/catering effort, initially for friends, family and church members.
He opened up a brick-and-mortar space at Piedmont Commons in 2012, then moved into larger space in the same retail center that had had sporadic tenets in a number of food genres.
The former Righteous ‘Que space is now occupied by Belen de la Cruz Empanadas and Pastries.
In a video posted this week, Verzone said that “as we get closer to football season, we’ll be throwing in some wings.”
Serving Sunday Mimosas
Two longstanding East Cobb restaurants that specialize in Sunday service—they’re breakfast and brunch spots—will soon be offering mimosas to their customers.
Eggs Upp Grill (4401 Shallowford Road) and J. Christophers at the Woodlawn Square Shopping Center on Johnson Ferry Road recently had to get county approval to do so, since they didn’t have pouring licenses.
The process takes several steps, and in the case of both restaurants, started with initial denials by the Cobb Business License Divison.
That’s because both establishments are located within 300 feet of homes, schools, libraries, parks and places of worship—the county ordinance’s distance requirement—and quite a few restaurants have had to appeal those denials as a result.
The Cobb License Review Board approved the Eggs Up and J. Christopher’s requests for beer, wine and Sunday alcohol sales, and the Cobb Board of Commissioners recently upheld those approvals by consent.
The process has become standard and routine, but it’s also cumbersome for restaurant owners.
In addition to their applications, they also have to fill out extensive questionnaires stating whether their serving alcohol will have an “adverse effect” on those homes, schools, libraries, parks and places of worship.
The restaurants also have to explain how they plan to train employees to serve alcohol, if they’ve provided written policies and procedures for doing so, the percentage breakdown between food and alcohol sales and more (36 questions are asked).
County officials also compile a list of nearby establishments that serve alcohol as the applications are considered.
In the case of Eggs Up, its ownership told the county it’s being required to serve mimosas at the behest of the company.
That will start after a remodeling project that will keep the restaurant closed for at least another week.
Sterling Estates serves up its version of a Philly cheesesteak at the Taste of East Cobb.
2027 Taste of East Cobb date
Organizers of the Taste of East Cobb (Walton Band Parent Association) announced last week that the 2027 event will be held earlier than usual.
The festival will take place April 17, 2027, at its familiar venue at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
The Taste of East Cobb traditionally has been held the first Saturday in May, a week after the much larger Taste of Marietta.
The new date for the Taste of East Cobb—two weeks earlier than usual—will now be a week ahead of the Marietta Square festival, which is set for April 25, 2027.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
An East Cobb Thai restaurant received an especially low health inspection score in a visit this week by Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
On Monday inspectors visited Thai Taste (4796 Canton Road, near Jamerson Road) and wrote up a myriad of violations for a “U” grade.
Restaurants that get scores of 70 or lower (“C” grade or lower) are re-inspected within 10 working days, but Thai Taste’s score is lower than usual even for a failing inspection.
The major violations included improper food handling, a lack of sanitary cleaning procedures, non-continuous processes for cooking raw animal foods and significant managerial issues.
Among them included not having a person-in-charge when inspectors arrived at Thai Taste on Monday afternoon for what turned out to be a three-hour inspection.
“The only one employee was not aware of when food was cooked on what day or what time of the day, when employee shall wash his hands and could not answer any of EHS questions,” according to the inspection report, compiled by Elena Petra of Cobb and Douglas Public Health’s Environmental Health and Safety agency, which conducts food health inspections.
“The other employee (the cook) was not speaking English. There must be a person in charge on the premises of the food service establishment at all times.”
Petra also observed an employee “re-entering the kitchen with soiled gloves from previously cutting chicken earlier.” When he was told he needed to wash his hands, according to the inspection, the employee “went to the hand sink and turned on the water, rubbed his hands together for about 10 seconds without soap, half dried them and proceeded to handle clean dishes.”
That was one of four nine-point deductions at Thai Taste, along with a failure to separate and cover food properly.
The inspector noticed a large bag of raw bean sprouts “resting directly on top of raw eggs in the RIC in the main kitchen. Observed raw bagged scallops resting directly on top of half raw mussels. Mussels were not covered and were half shelled.”
Petra also docked Thai Taste nine points when an employee cut raw chicken wearing gloves, then placed the chicken in bags with soiled gloves. He was ordered to remove the gloves and wash his hands, according to the report, which he eventually did.
The restaurant was given deadlines to correct some of the violations. At the end of the report, Petra wrote that “EHS will reach out to the owner regarding the findings in this inspection. Neither employees were comfortable signing the inspection in the absence of the owner.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
An Indian restaurant in East Cobb that failed a health inspection last week got a much better score on Thursday.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health inspectors gave Vatica Indian Cuisine  (1475 Terrell Mill Road, Suite 105) a score of 90, or A, upon a re-inspection.
Vatica received a score of 57 on June 17 for a variety of violations, including food-handling and storage issues, food build-up on surfaces throughout the kitchen and the presence of roaches.
On Thursday, inspectors docked the restaurant nine points after seeing “employee using bare fingers to remove ghee from a container, then apply it to uncooked naan in main kitchen. The same container of ghee was used on ready-to-eat cooked naan in main kitchen.”
Otherwise, the major issues cited in the original report had been corrected, although inspectors also cited Vatica on Thursday for not posting the initial inspection report in public view.
“The most current inspection report shall be prominently displayed in public view at all times, within fifteen feet of the front or primary public door and between five feet and seven feet from the floor and in an area where it can be read at a distance of one foot away,” states the re-inspection report (which you can view here).
Restaurants that get scores of 70 or below are typically re-inspected with 10 working days.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Cobb and Douglas Public Health will be revisiting an Indian restaurant in East Cobb which it gave a failing health inspection on Wednesday.
The agency inspected Vatica Indian Cuisine (1475 Terrell Mill Road, Suite 105), and after being on premises for more than three hours, issued a score of 57, or U, for unsatisfactory, citing a variety of major violations.
Among them are an employee touching dirty dishes then preparing food without washing hands, containers of raw meat stacked on one another in a walk-in cooler, uncovered containers of spices and ingredients on counters and improper food storage temperatures.
Vatica also was docked points for “food debris and encrustration on floors, walls, and ceiling fixtures throughout main kitchen” and roaches “on floors in prep area and storage area, behind freezer chest in storage area, and on prep table next to stove in main kitchen.”
Health inspectors said they would return in 10 days after providing a detailed report of corrective action (you can view it here) for some of the violations.
Vatica was ordered to obtain a thermometer to read temperatures for “cold thin foods” and was given 24 hours to do so, and was told to clean the food debris and encrustation by the time of the re-inspection.
Inspectors also said the restaurant needs to “remove harboring conditions” for the roaches before the next visit and to “routinely inspect the premises for evidence of pests.”
On its previous inspection, in December 2025, Vatica received a health score of 80, and an 88 in April 2025.
The latter is the highest score the restaurant has received since 2023.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
