Alpharetta Scores Culinary Coup with Whole Foods; Johns Creek Welcomes Super H Mart
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Johns Creek Real Estate, Local Affairs
They say that you can measure a town by the quality of its restaurants – and there are some decent places to eat in Alpharetta and Roswell. For instance, I enjoy Pure Tacqueria in downtown Alpharetta and think they have the best quacamole around. Plus they give you a ton of it.
However, if you live in the Atlanta area and you’re planning on having “a nice night on the town” you’re most likely going to head to Buckhead. From Alpharetta, that is a short 20–minute drive down GA-400.
Atlanta in general measures pretty well on the restaurant scale. But if you want to measure suburban areas like North Fulton, I think you are better off considering the grocery stores rather than the restaurants. After all, with a family of five, my family spends more of our time and money at the grocery store than in restaurants.
I’ve previously written about grocery stores in North Fulton. We have a Trader Joes, Harry’s Farmers Market, Fresh Market, Whole Foods and the ubiquitous Krogers and Publixes. The new development is that Whole Foods is planning on opening another store in Alpharetta to anchor the new (under development) Prospect Park at Old Milton Parkway and GA-400.
The existing Whole Foods in Johns Creek is an awesome store, but it is a hike for residents of Roswell, Alpharetta and Milton to get there. The newly proposed store will be the largest Whole Foods store to date and will have SIX restaurants inside.
Whole Foods was not originally planned for Prospect Park and its inclusion has created some changes in the traffic design. The “curb cut” to allow turning lanes needs to be extended and there is some issue with the Georgia Department of Transportation about changing the curbing so close to GA-400. The issue will not likely be resolved until after the new year when a new DOT administrator takes over, but all of us food lovers hope the bureaucrats don’t block the grass fed beef. 
Johns Creek also has a great new grocery store called Super H Mart that caters to the growing Asian population in that area. Located at Abbotts Bridge and HWY 141, the Jones Creek store has been open since June and complements the other Super H Mart in nearby Duluth.
It is a great family field trip during the weekend to explore all the variety. First of all, they have a restaurant section inside for lunch where you can eat Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Thai. Plus there is a bakery for desert. But what is most fun is that you can try to figure out what dragon fruit is or what you’d do with a durian. Of course, you can get your dried anchovies and squid (you can even sample it if you want) and you can get your fresh fish prepared any one of eight ways while you wait. And don’t forget your 50 lb. bag of rice!
The location of these new groceries in North Fulton is just another indicator of the demographics and future growth potential of the area. Even in this current business cycle, where real estate has been set back; the future prospects for North Fulton are still positive as evidenced by the decisions of the grocery chains like this.
Believe me, Whole Foods does its research before going into a market and they look for a number of indicators including percentage of college educated people, which is a nice way of saying people who have money to spend. Businesses like Whole Foods (Texas based and rated by Fortune Magazine as the #5 best company to work for) and Super H Mart (New York based) survey the entire country when looking for expansion opportunities and they have chosen North Fulton.
My stomach and I are glad they did.
Hi Kevin! My name is Saga Terrell and I am newsletter editor for our subdivision newsletter. I found your blog entry about Whole Foods and Prospect Park and have excerpted a few paragraphs for our March issue. We live in a subdivision off Academy Street, about 1/3 mile from Prospect Park as the crow flies. Our residents are very interested in this development. I gave you full credit and cited your blog. I hope it’s OK. Thanks so much. Great blog, by the way.
Regards,
Saga Terrell