King’s Hawaiian Restaurant Concept NOT Coming to East Cobb now

Update 5/9 from East Cobb News the King’s Hawaiian Restaurant is NOT coming to Georgia now at the East Cobb location.

Jason Linscott, a principal at Stein Investment Group, which owns the property at Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road where the eatery was proposed, said King’s Hawaiian made the decision a week after the zoning hearing. He said the reason was that the conditions included in the approval “weren’t going to make it work.”

In particular, Linscott cited a required 40-foot buffer between the back of the property and the adjacent Harrison Park tennis courts. Stein had applied to reduce that buffer to just four feet for parking and drive thru access.

———-Original Article 11/9/22

A King’s Hawaiian bakery and fast casual restaurant is opening in East Cobb according to Tomorrow’s News Today under the working name Ohana.The Taira family, owners of King’s Hawaiian, plan to open a restaurant in an outparcel of the old Georgia Theatre Company (GTC) Cobb Place 12 Cinema complex near the intersection of Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road.  They also have one planned for Gainesville, Ga too. (The Gainesville article lists the restaurant as Ohana and not a King’s Hawaiian restaurant)

The King’s Hawaiian tradition began in 1950, when founder Robert Taira opened his first bakery in Hilo, Hawaii. After several years of success, Robert moved his family business to Honolulu and opened that city’s first combination Bakery & Restaurant, which became extremely popular. In addition, Robert’s unique Portuguese sweet bread received a great deal of attention from residents and visitors alike. This came to be known as King’s Hawaiian Bread.

The restaurant reportedly does not yet have an official name but is referred to in filings as “Project Ohana” (Ohana is a Hawaiian term meaning “family”).

In addition to the restaurant, the company will expand its bakery in Georgia, investing $85 million and hiring more than 160 new employees.

The privately owned company based in Los Angeles announced Tuesday that it would construct a 150,000-square-foot building across the street from its existing production plant in Oakwood, northeast of Atlanta. The company says the new plant, scheduled to open in fall 2023, will allow it to increase production “significantly.”

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