Lots of New Businesses in Duluth

New businesses are filling vacant spaces on Main Street in downtown Duluth and elsewhere in the city. Some are starting from scratch by constructing new buildings.

Crave Pie Studio plans to open next month in the former Tie Dye 4 Bakery location at 3107B Main Street, which recently closed. A new sign for Crave Pie Studio has just been painted on the window. Owner Briana Carson of Buford has already been testing the market by selling her delicious pies at Farmer’s Markets in the area.

Trish Land has staked out space in the former Sensibly Chic shop at 3131A Main St. for a retail store featuring home and garden décor, floral creations, and event design services. Renovations will start almost immediately, according to Duluth Economic Development Manager Chris McGahee. The Decatur, AL-based business named after the company founder is scheduled to open in mid-July.

David Cossette and Shelly Howard, who own the building and formerly operated the antiques and collectibles shop there, had recently sought city approval of a special-use permit to allow an office to locate in the space, but a preferable retail renter materialized.

Corner Copia, a juice and snack bar at the corner of Main and West Lawrenceville streets, opened softly in May. It offers fresh cane, fruit and vegetable juices, fresh fruit, coconuts, coconut milk, boiled peanuts, corn on the cob, and non-dairy ice cream. A grand opening is planned at its 3107A Main Street location in the near future.

Beast Kitchen opened its doors in April at 3194 Buford Hwy. featuring American, Mexican and Korean food plus Chinese dishes such as Lo Mein, egg rolls and fried rice. The restaurant specializes in traditional Mexican tacos and trendy Korean barbecue tacos with Kimchi. The tacos are available with beef, pork or chicken.

Other Beast Kitchen menu items include wings, hamburgers, fried and grilled chicken sandwiches, fried fish, fried chicken, chicken tenders, Philly cheesesteaks, and salads.

The Lim family, including son Joseph Soon Lim, his parents Dae In and Hanna Lim, and a partner, operates the Beast Kitchen.

The elder Lim, who has 18 years experience in restaurant business, formerly owned restaurants in downtown Atlanta and Macon. He plans to operate a food truck, called “The Beast” that would be based at the Beast Kitchen, in Duluth. He is admittedly fascinated by food trucks and has photographs of them from different cities displayed in the restaurant.

CRAZE Tavern restaurant and nightclub featuring live music opened in late April in the former Bogey’s location at 3312 Peachtree Industrial Blvd. (PIB).

Owner Tom Kim transformed his former Asian restaurant at 3092 Buford Hwy. into Tom’s Hot Wings in late March. His hot wing flavors include hot, medium, mild, lemon pepper, honey BBQ, and teriyaki. Platters featuring teriyaki chicken or beef with rice, broccoli, carrots, and, cabbage are also available. Other menu items include fried rice with beef, chicken or shrimp and the house (plain) fried rice as well as hamburgers and Philly sandwiches.

A new Tide Dry Cleaners is going up quickly on the former Kentucky Fried Chicken site at 2774 Buford Hwy. The dry cleaners will use GreenEarth® cleaning products and offer anytime 24-hour drop-off and pick-up along with drive-thru service. Every garment is treated with Tide FreshScent™ and Tide SpotLift.™

Other special services include free minor repairs, leather cleaning/conditioning, wedding dress cleaning/preservation, alterations, and Tide ColorGuard,™ Tide Restore,™ and Back-to-Black.™ In-store products will be available for purchase.

Construction is also progressing on the free-standing LA Fitness being built next to Kroger in the Peachtree Hill Shopping Center on PIB.