Fatz Cafe restaurant might open in Evans

Fatz Cafe might soon be the newest addition to the Evans restaurant community.

Restaurant and county officials are tight-lipped on the possibility of the Southeastern chain's plans to develop a lot at the corner of Belair and Hereford Farm roads, but the company is running advertisements for employees in local newspapers.

"We like Evans. We've been to visit Evans, but we don't have a site secured yet," said Eric Holman, Fatz's vice-president of concept development. "We're still working on it. That's about all I can tell you."

Despite Holman's unwillingness to admit to the new restaurant, the classified advertisement reads, "Fatz cafe is on a roll and will soon be rolling into Evans, Ga., with its newest location."

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Even with the classified ad already published, local economic leaders are reluctant to admit the restaurant is coming.

"As it relates to any economic development project, with all due respect, those are the kinds of things I can't talk about just as a courtesy to any client I might be working with," said Zack Daffin, the executive director for the Columbia County Economic Development Authority.

Fatz Cafe is owned by the privately held company, Cafe Enterprises Inc., and based in Taylors, S.C. The first Fatz opened in 1988 in a converted peach shed in Spartanburg, S.C..

Fatz has 17 locations in the Carolinas and one in Tennessee. An Evans branch would be the first in Georgia.