Reynoldstown breakfast staple secures long-term future amid development pressures

The owners of a popular Atlanta restaurant have purchased their prime real estate in Reynoldstown, staving off development pressures and sparking a new era of the business.

Home Grown co-owners Kevin Clark and Lisa Spooner closed on the 0.4-acre site at 968 Memorial Drive SE this week from Michelle Stangline for nearly $2 million, Atlanta Business Chronicle has learned. That price is a marked increase from the $56,000 that Stangline's family paid in 1981. A deed for this week's sale has not yet been recorded in Fulton County property records.

Reynoldstown is booming, thanks largely to the Atlanta Beltline. Multifamily developers can usually outbid small business owners looking to purchase their own real estate to avoid ever-worsening lease terms.

When the previous owner of Home Grown's building put out feelers for the property, Jason Eden of Cross-Town Realty was looped in because he was part of the group that owned the neighboring multifamily development site. Eden is a friend of the Home Grown co-owners, and he offered to help them purchase it instead.

The deal took months to complete.

"What we've created is going to stay here, and it's only going to get better," Clark told the Chronicle.

Future plans include acquiring a liquor license, transforming the back of the restaurant into a coffee shop, expanding service to seven days a week and creating a dinner menu. The latter is a big shift for the breakfast and lunch spot.

Home Grown serves Southern fare in a diner that evokes a Reynoldstown of yesteryear rather than the polished, Beltline-adjacent neighborhood it has recently become. It has been known for its Comfy Chicken Biscuit since the item was added to the menu one year after Clark opened the space in 2010.

Clark told Atlanta Magazine in 2016 that Home Grown serves more than 400 orders of the biscuit each week.

“[The Comfy] has taken on a life of its own,” Clark told the magazine. “When I’m out, people will call me Comfy.”

That was seven years before Michelin arrived in Atlanta and named Home Grown a recommended restaurant. The guide describes this as “above average but not quite at Star or Bib level." In 2024, the diner maintained its distinction.

Eventually, Clark wants to open another restaurant. But for now, he will focus on Home Grown's new offerings. Among the first items on the to-do list is the new coffee shop. Justin Brostek, owner of a boutique coffee cart called Storyteller Goods, will operate the space. He won't need much upfront investment but will pay rent and share a percent of sales.

"It's going to benefit both of us," Clark said.

Eden said he has eaten at Home Grown multiple times per month for the last 15 years. He is part of a loyal, diverse customer base at what has become a neighborhood institution.

"I'm thrilled for them," Eden said. "It's a great opportunity for them to control their future and to have security in their business and their location — and at the same time, have an incredible piece of real estate.”

Clark said he will "never forget" Eden and what he did for Home Grown as the restaurant's broker. It means a lot to keep a part of old Reynoldstown alive, he said.

"Buckhead was never my thing," Clark said. "And now my restaurant has turned into Buckhead. There's nothing against that. I'm just saying that this area was rough. It was different when we opened, and now I'm the only piece that's left that looks how it used to look. At least we get to preserve that.”

Home Grown as it looked in 2010 after Kevin Clark took over the space from Mammy's Kitchen, which traces its Atlanta roots to Memorial Drive in the 1960s. That restaurant still has three other metro locations.

The interior of Home Grown in Reynoldstown. The restaurant serves Southern fare, most notably the fan-favorite Comfy Chicken Biscuit.