Opened with much fanfare two years ago, Flip Burger on Charlotte Avenue has closed.
The Atlanta-based burger chain first opened in 2008 and expanded to Birmingham a few years later before opening a Nashville outpost in 2015. The menu was initially designed by Top Chef winner Richard Blais, who was based in Atlanta at the time, as a "twist on classic comfort foods."
In her review for the Scene, critic Carrington Fox noted that all anyone wanted to talk about after the opening was Blais and his liquid nitrogen milkshakes, with many people overlooking the restaurant's flaws and lining up in droves.
Because no matter what I say about Flip Burger, the funky and festive local outpost of the Atlanta-based burger boutique, everything will be trumped by the facts that Top Chef All-Stars winner Richard Blais' name is attached and there is indeed a milkshake infused with emulsified goose liver and Amaretto reduction and chilled with liquid nitrogen.If this were any other establishment, without a marquee name or frigid drifts of LN2 billowing over the bar, I could draft an ambivalent litany of pros and cons about menu and execution that might leave a reader scratching her head and contemplating whether To Flip or Not to Flip. I could point out that the cheese curds dipped in funnel cake-esque batter and fried to pillowy, molten perfection were among the most worthwhile efforts of nutritional nose-thumbing that I have ever dared to consume. Then, in the same breath, I could tell you that the onion rings were undercooked, wet and soggy with oil.
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But in this case, all anyone seems to be hearing is, "Blah blah Top Chef ... blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah Foie Gras Milkshake." These highlights, along with a few other dazzling data points, appear to be fueling an irrational exuberance over a latter-day diner, where despite consistently inconsistent execution, there's seldom less than an hour's wait.
A statement by Commercial Realty Services, owner of the space, cited "increased competition from a crowded field of other burger concepts." Notably, Pat Martin's new Hugh-Baby's burger place
opened this week a few blocks down Charlotte Avenue. CRS says they're working with Flip's ownership group to re-concept the space.
