A Korean fried chicken restaurant that opened with plenty of promise in Smyrna has closed its doors after less than nine months in business, shutting down abruptly and quietly at the end of July with no official explanation given to customers. The Bonchon location sat in an outparcel of the Sprouts Farmers Market-anchored Olde Ivy Village, at the corner of East-West Connector and South Cobb Drive, a spot that has now churned through three different restaurant tenants in roughly a decade.
The Smyrna Bonchon officially debuted on November 12, 2025, opened by Patrick Fischer, described as a local entrepreneur and restaurant industry veteran, according to tonetoatl.com. The outlet reports the location had inconsistent service from day one, compiling 131 Google reviews and an overall rating of 3.6 stars before it disappeared, though early customer feedback was notably rougher — Tomorrow's News Today – Atlanta found the location's first batch of reviews averaged just 2.3 stars following its soft opening.
Right up until early July, the restaurant's Facebook page showed no signs of trouble, advertising Father's Day specials and soccer watch-party family meals as if business were running as usual. That kind of standard marketing activity so close to an unannounced shutdown underscores just how sudden the closure appears to have been.
A Retail Space With a Revolving Door
The 2,400-square-foot space Bonchon occupied has a history of short-lived tenants. Uncle Maddio's Pizza occupied the unit when Olde Ivy Village first opened, then closed in 2020. Twisted Kitchen moved into the same space in 2021 before it, too, closed in 2025, clearing the way for Bonchon's arrival. As of the reporting from tonetoatl.com, the space is not yet marked as available, leaving its future uncertain.
Olde Ivy Village itself is no struggling strip mall. Developer Columbia Properties built the 10-acre center in 2015 as a “Gateway to Smyrna” retail project anchored by a 28,000-square-foot Sprouts Farmers Market, according to Columbia Properties. Illinois-based Inland Real Estate Income Trust Inc., now the center's landlord under Inland Property Management, purchased the property in June 2022 as part of an eight-property, $278.2 million national grocery-anchored retail portfolio acquisition, per GlobeSt. Regulatory disclosures filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission showed Olde Ivy Village maintained a 96.7% occupancy rate as of December 31, 2024, suggesting the center as a whole remains healthy even as this particular outparcel struggles to hold a tenant.
A Costly Bet in a Booming Category
Opening a Bonchon location is not cheap. Total initial franchise investments range between $591,000 and $1.31 million, including a $35,000 initial franchise fee and leasehold construction costs between $500,000 and $600,000, according to the brand's disclosure documents. Those steep upfront costs make a closure this fast especially costly for the local franchisee, particularly given that restaurant failures within the first year remain relatively uncommon nationally — Bureau of Labor Statistics data analyzed by the Commerce Institute puts first-year failure rates for accommodation and food service businesses at roughly 14% to 17.5%, far below the industry's 50% five-year failure rate.
The Smyrna closure comes even as Korean fried chicken is riding a wave of national and global growth. South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture reported in February that the number of Korean restaurant locations in the U.S. grew by 109% between 2020 and 2025, with fried chicken and bakery concepts together making up 64% of Korean brands' global footprint, as reported by The Korea Times. Bonchon's corporate leadership has been pushing hard into that momentum, appointing new development executives in mid-2025 with a stated goal of growing from 500 stores to 1,000 globally within five years, according to Restaurant Dive. The chain's signature preparation, per 1851 Franchise, involves hand-battering, double-frying, and hand-brushing chicken with proprietary sauces made at central facilities in South Korea.
Metro Atlanta Still Has Options
Bonchon still has two other open locations in the greater metro Atlanta area, in Alpharetta on Old Milton Parkway, which opened in 2024, and in Fayetteville on Pavilion Parkway, which opened back in 2016. Smyrna's failed run adds to a string of recent Bonchon closures that Hoodline has tracked elsewhere, including a 15-month Ann Arbor shutdown earlier this year, even as the company continues courting new franchise partners in markets like San Antonio and recently accelerated a Flower Mound opening as part of its broader expansion push.
No official reason has been given for the Smyrna closure, and it remains unclear whether the shuttered outparcel will attract a fourth restaurant tenant or sit vacant for a stretch. Smyrna has already seen another local fried chicken business close recently, with Mack's Hot Chicken shutting down in July following an employee assault at the restaurant, a reminder that the corridor's food scene has had a rough stretch even as the shopping center around it stays busy.
