The Forgotten Atlanta Steakhouse Once Loved For Its Succulent Lobster

Long before Atlanta, Georgia, was a foodie hot spot and the star of Michelin's "American South" restaurant guide, there was W.D. Crowley's Steak and Lobster House, one of the city's beloved dining spots. The original location gained popular in the early '70s in Atlanta's up-and-coming Underground neighborhood, which had just gotten a multi-million dollar restoration. A group of friends working together under the company name "Downside Risk, Inc." owned the restaurant which, strangely, they named after an Irish traveling salesman who died by suicide while in Atlanta in 1893. The somewhat macabre origin story of the name aside, for several years the restaurant was the spot to go for "hearth-charcoaled" steak and seafood (via Golfdom), especially lobster, of which the restaurant claimed "even a New Englander would approve" (via The Atlanta Journal).

By 1977, the company had seven different bars and pubs across Atlanta, each with its own vibe, but mainly decked out in old English-style pub decor. The brand's Crowley's River House, located in an Atlanta shopping center and done up like an old ski lodge, was well known for its 20-ounce lobster tail that claimed to be the best in Atlanta. At its height, the company had 11 locations in Atlanta, Columbus, and Savannah. But the restaurant chain would eventually struggle to keep its steakhouses open.

The original W.D. Crowley's Steak and Lobster House in Underground was closed by 1979, along with its bar, the Bucket Shop (which was later reopened in a different neighborhood), and its jazz club, which was called the Apothecary Lounge. The company blamed Atlanta's new light rail system, built across the street from the steakhouse, for its demise. The owners unsuccessfully sued for damages even though there were other circumstances that also worked against the business, including a changing dining scene and a nationwide economic downturn in the mid-1970s.

Still, even after the loss of these restaurants, the company continued to expand. But as the 2000s dawned, the W.D. Crowley brand was quickly fading, like so many other once-popular restaurant chains. More locations began to close in the 1990s. The company shuttered one of its flagship locations, known as the Brandy House, in the early 2000s. It had been around since the 1970s. These restaurants certainly didn't last as long as any of the oldest steakhouses in the United States, some of which have been around for a century or more, but W.D. Crowley had a good run with many old-school Atlanteans still fondly recalling the lost restaurant.