TomTom Founder Talks Expansion, Branding
Despite mounting concerns about the state of Atlanta's restaurant market, longtime Atlanta restaurant fixture Tom Catherall plans to expand his TomTom empire here. Again. Just days before Tom is scheduled to be featured at our Retail & Restaurant Roundup, the TomTom founder and former head of Here To Serve's collapsed empire tells us he's eyeing other restaurant locations outside of his freshly debuted TomTom in Virginia-Highlands. “I would definitely open in Brookhaven,” Tom tells us. He's also eyeing locations in Buckhead.
Tom's previous restaurant empire—which included Prime, Shucks, Smash, Strip, Twist and Noche—came to a crashing halt last year when all the locations shuttered and the corporate entity went bankrupt following his divorce from Leigh Catherall, who was given control of the company. Tom is looking to rebuild his restaurant empire, except this time only using the TomTom brand. “If I went back to Buckhead, I'd probably do a TomTom Steak and Sushi,” he says. Hear more from Tom, along with Revel's George Banks, Fifth Group Restaurants' Robby Kukler, Marcus & Millichap's Michael Fasano, The Loudermilk Cos' Robin Loudermilk, North American Properties' Ron Pfohl and Halpern Enterprises' Jack Halpern 7:30am, Thursday, Aug. 18, at the JW Marriott Atlanta Buckhead. Register here.
