City adds Atlanta, Chicago locations

City Barbeque is going in two directions at once.

The Columbus-based chain opened its latest store near Atlanta on Monday and will open its first store near Chicago next month. More than 700 miles separate the two cities that will represent City Barbeque’s the northern and southern reaches so far.

As always, Rick Malir, founder of City Barbeque, said the expansions into Georgia and Illinois — both new states for the 36-store company — seemed like the right moves to make.

“Atlanta is obviously a great city. We’re going to see how they like us,” he said. “The market is really vibrant (in Chicago). “It just felt right.” Malir doesn’t fear Atlanta’s fierce barbeque scene. With eight locations now open in North Carolina, he knows City can compete in the South. He even argues that expanding into the South made the restaurants better.

“They love our brisket, our pork, our ribs,” Malir said of customers in North Carolina. “They didn’t love our green beans. I didn’t love our greens, either.”

So, he changed them.

City Barbeque started using fresh-picked green beans and introduced another side dish popular in the South — fried okra.

“There is obviously great competition down there, and it requires us to be our best,” Malir said. “We are always looking for ways to make things tastier and better.”

Atlanta is an obvious barbeque market but Chicago is not. Its culinary history leans toward pizza, hot dogs and Italian beef.

That lack of obvious competition might be the reason City is already planning several more stores in the region.

If history is a guide, City Barbeque will do well in Chicago, said Tim Powell, vice president at

Q1 Consulting, a foodservice consultant based in Chicago.

“I trust Rick Malir,” he said. “The key is sticking to the formula that has made City Barbeque so successful: adapting to local tastes and excellent food and service. There are really no other barbeque chains in Chicagoland.”

Just over a year ago, Malir and his partners sold a controlling interest to private-equity group Freeman, Spogli and Co. The idea was to spur growth, and the company has added 10 stores in the past year.

After Atlanta and Chicago open, Malir will take a short break before opening a store in Akron in the spring.

With all of the development, he said, the company has invested in culinary training and development to ensure that the food actually improves with growth instead of losing quality.

“I think showing that he could take a wellexecuted concept in the Midwest and find success in the center of barbeque country speaks to how well their business is run,” Powell said.

Other than the green beans, the big recipe change was to its banana pudding, a dish that might have sealed City’s success in the South even more than its ribs and brisket.

“They eat a lot more banana pudding down there, for some reason,” Malir said.