March 20, 2017

Meet Marc Taft of Southern Fried Hospitality in Marietta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marc Taft.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Marc. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started working at Chick-fil-A when I was 15. I worked in restaurants throughout college and made it my career upon graduation. I have worked in various roles throughout my career that prepared me to start my own businesses, as well as lead Southern Fried Hospitality as its president.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think it has been a smooth road. It has not always been easy, but people should know better to get into this industry if they want something easy. We are challenged daily by our guests, our teams, our investors, by government regulations, etc. As challenging as it is, I find it exciting and wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Southern Fried Hospitality – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Southern Fried Hospitality is a development, consulting and management company that was formed to build our restaurant portfolio, manage our businesses and help other owners and operators that need help along the way. I have helped with creating concepts, re-branding, creating systems to help run daily operations more effectively, implementing food & beverage programs in hotels and building our business with our restaurants.

Our Concepts:

Chicken and the Egg is a modern farmstead fare restaurant that focuses on serving our neighbors by providing a sustainable dining alternative. We source our products locally and may homage the farmers, ranchers and artisans that provide those products. We have been open over 5 1/2 years and look forward to continuing to serve the community.

Brine Seafood Shack is our new seafood concept that is debuting in April 2017 at Avalon in Alpharetta. We will focus on fresh, sustainable seafood. It is inspired by my time spent working in Southern California.

FEED Fried Chicken + Such is our new fast-casual fried chicken restaurant offering the best locally sourced poultry. We hope to be a family destination offering a quality product for a great value. We will debut this brand in May 2017 at The Battery at SunTrust Park. We will open several more over the next 18 months.

CO-OP Community Table is going to be our restaurant that really celebrates our Southern heritage and the ingredients that helped form our regional cuisine. We will feature local farmers and strive to offer our seasonal menu in an approachable manner while educating our diners about the history behind the food they eat. It is also about supporting our community and local economy while giving back to those that make up that community.

We are proud of our ability to grow our business while also serving our community and doing what we love.

What sets us apart is that we are going to parts of the region that have been underserved by chef-driven restaurants. We allow our diners to experience the in town dining experience while remaining close to home. We hope to continue to offer a chef-driven alternative to the many chain restaurants that typically dominate the suburban landscape.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We love calling Atlanta and its surrounding area home. The city offers a very diverse population, attractions and opportunities. The size of the city allows us many opportunities that smaller metro areas do not have and still allows access to great products from the surrounding agricultural regions. We also love the down-home feeling that we get from the city, as well as the outstanding support from our many neighbors.

If I could change anything about Atlanta, I would probably be like most and change the roadway infrastructure to help reduce the traffic volume on our over-burdened roads.

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