Vinings Jubilee wins VBA award, loses The Grape

In 2011, Vinings Jubilee celebrated 25 years as a great destination spot to shop, dine, relax and be entertained, and on Tuesday, Paces Holding/Vinings Jubilee celebrated being selected as the Vinings Business Association’s 2011 Business of the Year.

Paces Holding is the management office for Vinings Jubilee. Property Manager Terri Hilderhoff and Assistant Property Manager Eva Bass were at to accept the award before 50-plus people attending the VBA's First Tuesday Luncheon.

Congressman Tom Price, who represents Georgia’s 6th District, was the featured speaker and Smyrna-Vinings Patch will have more on his presentation later.

“Wow, I was not expecting this,’’ said Hilderhoff. “This is quite an honor for us and we had a lot of competition that was wonderful.’’

The other four finalists included the Vinings Historic Preservation Society, First Citizens Bank-Cumberland Boulevard branch, and Cobb County Public Safety/Vinings.

First opened in October 1986, Vinings Jubilee has doubled in size in the last quarter century. And with more than 30 shopping, dining and specialty shops, it continues to be a great connective force for the Vinings Village.

“Vinings Jubilee has always been proud to be a part of this community,’’ Hilderhoff said. “We’ll continue to work hard at being the best we can for Vinings because we feel we’re the heartbeat here.”

That heartbeat recently skipped a bit, though, as Hilderhoff also announced that a longtime Vinings Jubilee restaurant fixture had closed its doors for good on Dec. 31, 2011.

“We’re doing great; we’ve got some new tenants coming in this year so please look for those,’’ she said. “Unfortunately, I have to announce that The Grape has closed. We do have another restaurant coming into replace them, but we can’t quite announce that yet.”

The long-standing wine and tapas spot, The Grape often featured half-off bottles of wine on Wednesday and live music on its porch on Fridays.

The Vinings-based Grape Enterprise Group Inc., which both owns and franchises shops in the Southeast, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2008. Since then, locations in Inman Park and Phipps Plaza have closed as now only an Atlantic Station location remains in Georgia.

The chain was founded by Jack Mazur in Vinings. Messages left with Grape Enterprise Group Inc., had not been returned at the time of this writing. And while The Grape may be gone, another Vinings Jubilee dining favorite is still going strong after 14 years.

“SOHO announced that they had the best month of December in the history of their being in Vinings Jubilee,’’ Hilderhoff said.

In other Vinings restaurant news, a man at the former Tomo Japanese Restaurant location told Patch on Tuesday that a Japanese sushi establishment will open in its place in “either February or March.’’

The restaurant space is located at 3244 Cobb Parkway in the Riverview Village shopping center.

And two doors down, is in its final days of business. First opened in 1991, Shoppe of Vinings carried unique and stylish items, including women's accessories, bags, toys, accessories, home décor, one-of-a-kind jewelry and edible treats.

A liquidation sale began last week and a peek inside Tuesday showed about 75 percent of the merchandise had already been moved off the shelves. A representative assisting with the liquidation indicated that diminished sales had led to its closing.