Joey's Mexican Grill has opened its flagship restaurant at 1385 Highland Ridge Road in Smyrna. The restaurant's Atlanta-based parent company, Specialty Restaurant Concepts International Inc., plans to have 50 locations in the Southeast by the end of 2004. Specialty Restaurant Concepts plans to add 20 more restaurants in metro Atlanta by mid-2005, said Ernest Quarles, regional franchise director. Two in Cobb, one in Alpharetta and one in Stockbridge will open by Dec. 31, he said. Joey's also is expanding into South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Virginia and Tennessee. No other restaurant is open yet since the company is still searching for sites for most of them, Quarles said. "Greenville [S.C.] will probably be the first to open [outside of Atlanta]," he said. "We've got the site for that one. We're looking at that one opening in January." Quick-serve Joey's will offer live music on weekends, as well as items such as Thin Lizzie salads, Jack the Cheese tacos, Fat Boy burritos, Doll Face quesadillas and Little Petey tacos for children. Deli-cious expansion McAlister's Deli's sixth Atlanta location opened Nov. 10 at 10900 Medlock Bridge Road in Duluth. All locations have opened in the past 10 months and more are on the way. McAlister's Deli plans to have as many as 40 restaurants over the next five to eight years. Expect to see four or five McAlister's Delis open each year in metro Atlanta, which is the largest market that privately held Ridgeland, Miss.-based McAlister's has entered, said Pat Walls, chief development and administrative officer. "We've started to penetrate some large markets in the past year," he said. "We opened our first stores in St. Louis and Indianapolis, and we're about to get into Dallas, but Atlanta is the largest market we've tackled up to this point."
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