Outside Atlanta, an old-school Arby’s finds new life as a retro restaurant
By Lee BeyOutside Atlanta, an old-school Arby’s finds new life as a retro restaurant
By Lee BeyMy daughters and I were in the Atlanta area last weekend when we stumbled on this bit of well-tended midcentury roadside architecture just outside of Decatur, Georgia.
The restaurant is called Kitsch’n 155—a name that plays nicely off the restaurant’s postwar, kitsch styling. The building, built in 1969, was originally an Arby’s restaurant. With a curved roofline designed to resemble a Conestoga covered wagon from the old west, these restaurants—and a neon 10-gallon hat sign that read “Arby’s Roast Beef Sandwich is Delicious” dotted the U.S. landscape beginning in 1964.
Most first generation Arby’s franchises were either demolished for newer restaurants or sold off for other uses in the 1970s and 1980s. Kitsch’n 155 owner Randy Stewart told me his year-old restaurant was previously a pizza joint.