Wagaya Groceries will mark a third location at Emory Village. Owner Takashi Otsuka told What Now Atlanta that the spot is slated to open by the end of the year, preceding a location that will open at Inman Quarter in 2027.
Otsuka launched the grocery store concept in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and now has existing locations on the Westside and in Sandy Springs. Wagaya Groceries’ hospitality group MGK Hospitality also operates restaurants, including Wagaya and Nagomiya.
The forthcoming Emory Village location will open just two doors down from the existing Wagaya restaurant location at Emory Village. The new Wagaya Groceries location will include both a grocery store with Japanese and other East Asian products and a sit-down tonkatsu cafe.
It will be about twice as large as the forthcoming Inman Park location.
Otsuka is focusing on expanding the grocery store concept rather than the restaurants to cater to current economic conditions.
“Restaurants are getting really expensive,” Otsuka told What Now Atlanta. “We’re hoping to provide high-quality Japanese food, which we have grab-and-go, and the regular Japanese ingredients. So it is Japanese food, but at a better price, and in a convenient form.”
