“Here to Serve Restaurants” is most familiar to Grady students for its Atlantic Station staple, Strip. It is a consolidation of local restaurants including Phipps Plaza’s Tw!st, Lenox Square’s Prime, two Coast Seafood and Raw Bar locations (Johns Creek and Buckhead), three Noche locations (Vinings, Virginia Highland, and Brookhaven), Smash and Shucks.
Now Strip sits dark and abandoned due to the closings of the entire family of eateries. The company’s website currently displays only a picture of a “Sorry, We’re Closed” sign. However, a few months ago, the following statement was posted on the website: “We apologize for the inconvenience, we are working on reorganization. Hopefully we will be HERE TO SERVE you again soon!”
This is not the company’s first round of shutdowns. In 2014, three restaurants closed, including Shout (Peachtree Street), Aja (Buckhead) and Goldfish (Perimeter Mall).
“I was surprised [about Strip’s closing] to a certain degree, but other restaurants under “Here 2 Serve” closed down, so it was always seen as a terrible possibility,” said senior Joyce Merrell, a former Strip hostess who had worked there since February 2015.
The restaurants were started by chef Tom Catherall 21 years ago. However, in a 2012 divorce settlement, the ownership of the company was passed to his ex-wife, Leigh Catherall.
The mandatory court settlement did not sit well, however, with a couple of their landlords. The Catheralls failed to notify the owners of Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square of the settlement  and the owners sought to have Twist and Prime evicted from the malls, claiming the change was a breach of the leasing agreement, resulting in a 2014 lawsuit.
This is not the only lawsuit Catherall is facing. More than 40 former “Here 2 Serve’’ employees have banded together to file a class-action lawsuit against Catherall.
“No one knew, not even the GM (General Manager),” Merrell said. This was the case not only at Strip, but at many of the others. Nine hundred ninety three  workers found themselves unemployed and without their last paychecks.
Merrell’s experience was no different.
“Leigh Catherall never showed her face in the restaurants, nor did she help us find any new positions,” she said. Merrell was notified from an inside source about Leigh Catherall’s debt and the subsequent closings three days after the company made the announcement. The former employees filed suit the same day.
A Facebook page was assembled to help former “Here 2 Serve’’ employees find new jobs, as well as job postings on Twitter with the hashtag #H2S2WORK, with restaurants like Red Pepper Taqueria, Atlas Buckhead, Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand, and King and Duke offering positions.
The nonprofit “The Giving Kitchen,’’ which provides assistance to employees in the restaurant industry in cases of emergency, started a fund specifically for “Here 2 Serve’’ employees. The “Giving Kitchen’s’’ executive editor Stephanie Galer stated that the organization  would be providing money for rent and utilities for the workers.
Despite this unfortunate event, Tom Catherall has already begun making plans for the future. He has been negotiating with the landlords of the Vinings and Virginia Highland Noche locations about back rent in hopes of replacing Noche Virginia Highland with another Spanish-inspired restaurant, Tom Tom Tapas and Tequilas.
He has been approached by several investors, but declined because of his running history of having no investors involved at all. The restaurant’s opening was slated for Valentine’s Day 2016 and his intentions are to rehire some of his former employees. The new restaurant opened as planned and has been operating for several months.
“I had a very loyal staff. My drive is to get those people back to work,” Tom Catherall said.