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How Atlas Restaurant Group is helping to revitalize Baltimore’s economyHow Atlas Restaurant Group is helping to revitalize Baltimore’s economy

With more than 30 concepts, this group is maximizing its impact in its home city

Sam Oches, Editor in Chief

June 23, 2023

1 Min Read
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Restaurants are powerful businesses. They can change lives and the way people eat. They can even turn a whole city around.

Case in point: Atlas Restaurant Group. The portfolio of 30-plus concepts has been an institution in its home town of Baltimore, Md., since it first launched 11 years ago. With dozens of restaurants in Baltimore — and employing a total of 2,000 people in the five markets it operates — Atlas has made a profound impact on the city, revitalizing neighborhoods with classic, upscale restaurant concepts.

Baltimore native Alex Smith, who cofounded Atlas with his brother Eric, joined the latest episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches to talk about the power that restaurants have in transforming cities and why new concept development is important to broadening the impact you have in each market.

In this conversation, you’ll learn why:

  • Restaurants have the power to transform cities

  • Diversifying your concepts deepens the potential in each market where you operate

  • You build restaurants to last 20-plus years, not two or three years

  • The higher-quality experience you provide, the easier it is to find high-quality managers

  • Live entertainment offers both a unique experience and economic opportunity

  • Connection to the community is an excellent retention strategy

Contact Sam Oches at [email protected].

About the Author

Sam Oches

Editor in Chief

Sam Oches is the award-winning Editorial Director of Informa's Restaurant Group, which publishes Nation's Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. A graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, Sam previously served as Editorial Director of Food News Media, publisher of QSR and FSR magazines. He’s a past president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC) and a past board member with the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). His foodservice insights have been shared in national media outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio, and CNBC. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, with his wife and three kids.

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