Hawaiian Bros Uses MRCO Lease To Plant A Physical Flag In Downtown Atlanta

Hawaiian Bros Island Grill is moving from Atlanta-area availability to a more visible Georgia presence, signing a downtown lease for what is expected to become its first brick-and-mortar restaurant in the state.

The planned restaurant is slated for early 2027 at 112 Courtland Street NE, adjacent to Georgia State University. The site sits inside One12 Courtland, a mixed-use retail, restaurant and student-housing development that gives the brand access to students, downtown workers and delivery traffic.

The location will be owned and operated by MRCO, a multi-unit franchise group with more than 45 years of restaurant experience and a portfolio that includes nearly 90 Taco Bell locations. That operator profile matters because Hawaiian Bros is not treating Georgia as a single-store experiment. It is using an established franchise group to translate a fast-growing concept into a denser Southeast market.

MRCO is already tied to the brand's development across North Carolina, West Central Georgia and North Alabama through a 34-unit agreement. The group has also expanded its development areas to include 10 more restaurants in markets that include Birmingham, Columbus, Macon and Auburn.

The Atlanta restaurant is positioned as a milestone because the brand already serves part of the metro through a Decatur ghost kitchen. A physical downtown storefront changes the test. It puts the island-style plate-lunch menu in front of walk-in guests, students and office customers, rather than relying only on delivery or off-premise discovery.

That makes the real-estate choice important. A university-adjacent mixed-use site can create steady daypart traffic, but it also asks a fast-casual operator to handle speed, order mix and local awareness in a high-motion urban environment.

For Hawaiian Bros, the Georgia lease extends a broader growth story. The company says it has more than 80 restaurants across 14 states, most franchisee-owned and operated, along with more than 350 additional restaurants under development agreements.

Those numbers give the brand national ambition, but the next stage will be judged locally. MRCO's experience and infrastructure should help, yet the downtown Atlanta opening will still need to prove that Hawaiian Bros can make its plate-lunch model feel like a natural fit in a busy city corridor.

If the site performs, it could give the brand a stronger platform for the surrounding Southeast markets already assigned to MRCO. If it struggles, the lesson will be less about appetite for the food and more about how carefully the system adapts formats, trade areas and operator support as it grows beyond its early footprint.