Manager denies Nava eatery closing in August, but…

On the Fourth of July, one of the fireworks that came BuckheadView’s way was a comment that Nava, the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group’s eatery of Southwestern flavor in the Buckhead Plaza building is closing in August and might be replaced with a JCT Kitchen.

A call to one of the managers of Nava today was met with the comment, “I don’t know anything about that, but if it is true I guess I better start looking for a job.”  The manager said there have been attempts to buy Nava in the past, but he was not aware of anything pending.

The interior dining room of Buckhead's Nava restaurant.

The manager brushed off the rumor by saying Nava had just signed a new lease on the space at the beginning of the year. As for the lease, anyone who has ever leased property knows that a lease can be sold and transferred.

Actually, the pending closure of Nava was reported in mid-June at FoodieBuddha.com and then repeated at Atlanta.eater.com/tags/ford-fry. Both of the online restaurant reporting sites have said a Ford Fry restaurant is the likely successor to move into the location at 3060 Peachtree Road, at the corner of Peachtree and West Paces Ferry Road.

Ford Fry and his backers now have the relatively new restaurants The Optimist, No. 246, JCT Kitchen and a couple of other projects, according to Foodie Buddha.   

Chef  and restaurant owner Ford Fry

Ford Fry was recently quoted saying he is looking to open a restaurant in Buckhead since "they haven't had anything new in a long time. He wants it to have some Spanish influence but "be a locally-sourced, American tavern type of thing where most of the dishes come from the wood-burning hearth." That seems to fit in well with the Nava site.

Fry told Atlanta Eater that he'd thought about taking over the Nava location, but no final decision had been made.

That Buckhead Plaza location just seems to be buzzing with new restaurant news lately.

One of the best known employees of the Kinjo Brothers of the former MF Buckhead is planning to resurface in Buckhead in a space very close to Nava.

Fuyuhiko Ito and his wife Lisa (who handled service at the Omakase room) are looking to do a restaurant of about 60-70 seats.  Ito is a robatayaki master so the place likely will feature that style of food and could become one of Atlanta’s better sushi options.  Ito was the right-hand sushi man for some time before MF Buckhead closed down. 

But that is not all for sushi lovers. Bento Sushi, a little sushi bar also has opened near this intersection in the heart of Buckhead. Bento sits right there in the midst of Chops/The Lobster Bar and Nava. There is a focus on takeout, but they do have on premise seating.