After nine years at Inman Quarter in Inman Park, Char Korean Bar & Grill will close the week of May 12. Owner Richard Tang confirmed the closure with Rough Draft but didn’t specify an exact date. However, he did indicate that Char Korean will likely close by the middle of next week.
In addition to tariffs and a weakening economy, Tang also said that changes in the neighborhood factored into his decision to close Char Korean.
“People think [restaurant] margins are huge, and unfortunately, [restaurant] margins are realistically 10 percent,” he said. While ingredients, labor, and parking prices have gone up, the area’s business influx hasn’t followed suit. “My employees can’t afford $30 a day to park,” he added.
Tang said he was able to negotiate a deal with the current landlord, Jamestown Properties, with Char Korean leaving on good terms.
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Char Korean was one of the first restaurants to open in the Inman Quarter development, along with Bartaco and Hampton & Hudson, which closed in 2024. Tang credits the popularity of Sotto Sotto and Fritti, owned by Riccardo Ullio, with bringing other restaurants to this particular stretch of North Highland Avenue.
“I think everything [with Char Korean] was great all the way until probably 2020,” Tang said, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic hit the restaurant and hospitality industries especially hard. “We got demolished,” he continued, saying that the restaurant industry has not fully recovered. And rising rents around the city, he noted, aren’t helping with that recovery.
It’s unclear if Jamestown Properties increased the rent on Char Korean. Rough Draft reached out to Jamestown Properties for comment.
Tang also owns Girl Diver in Atlanta’s Reynoldstown neighborhood, which opened in 2020. Last fall, Tang closed its cocktail counterpart, Bar Diver, at the Westside Paper development on West Marietta Street.
Other restaurants at Inman Quarter include Bartaco, Bread & Butterfly, Beetlecat, Little Spirit, and MF Sushi.
Delbar resides at the corner of North Highland and Inman Village Parkway, beside Inman Quarter. Painted Park, a two-story “eatertainment” concept from Amick and William Stallworth, the duo behind The Painted Pin, Painted Duck, and Painted Pickle in Atlanta, opened across the street last fall in the former Parish restaurant space along the Eastside Beltline. The stretch of North Highland is also home to Barcelona Wine Bar, Inman Perk, and Pure Taqueria.
Char Korean Bar & Grill, 299 North Highland Ave., Inman Park.
