The site of a longtime Chattanooga restaurant that closed last year will become home to a concept that's growing in popularity.
The former Chop House at 2011 Gunbarrel Road is undergoing remodeling to hold Volcano Korean BBQ, said Simon Chan, a restaurant consultant to the group behind the new eatery.
"I believe this location will have a lot of traffic from the mall," he said, adding that the 7,000-square-foot restaurant when it opens in late summer is near the entrance to Hamilton Place.
Chan said Korean barbecue is different and he expects people in the area will want to sample it.
"They'll want to try it out," he said.
Chan said about $700,000 is going into the new restaurant, which will hire about 20 employees.
"We're doing demolition of the existing dining room," he said. "It will be totally rebuilt inside."
Last year, the group running the restaurant opened another eatery called Volcano Crab and Bar a few miles away off Shallowford Road.
Restaurateur Quanren Lin, who immigrated to the United States from Hong Kong to enter the restaurant business, opened that seafood restaurant in a former Applebee's.
Lin had earlier opened Fuji Steak and Sushi in Chattanooga in November 2009 and went on to also open Volcano Steak & Sushi restaurants in Acworth and Kennesaw, Georgia, and in West Berlin, New Jersey.
Also, Lin opened the Okinawa Steak & Sushi restaurant in Canton, Georgia; Pacific Spice in Acworth and Volcano Asian Bistro in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Chattanooga developer Bassam Issa said he recently closed on the sale of the former Chop House, which had operated at the site for more than 25 years before shutting down in January 2020.
"They'll be preparing and remodeling that building," he said.
The East Brainerd site of the Knoxville-based steakhouse chain was that company's fourth unit when it opened in 1994. Last year's shut down was the first for the chain, which restaurateur Mike Connor started in Knoxville in 1992 after previously managing Steak & Ale restaurants in Knoxville and in Brainerd in the late 1970s.
Chan said the coronavirus pandemic has slowed down work on the new restaurant, and he added that costs are higher for construction and for equipment.
Still, he said, sales are rising at the Volcano Crab eatery.
"Sales are going up," he said. "More people are coming out."
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.