Atlanta, GA
Atlanta restaurant receives threats for charging extra fee for employees’ health insurance
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – JenChan’s, a family-owned restaurant in the Cabbagetown area of Atlanta is turning heads.
The restaurant that opened six months before the pandemic is now garnering attention because it’s charging customers a health insurance fee for its full-time employees.
The following message is posted outside the restaurant, on all menus and at the bottom of each receipt.
“On your receipt, you will notice 4% health insurance we implemented after our premiums more than tripled last year. Thank you for being a part of our effort to ensure our staff can seek care for whatever mental or physical ailments they may face. We have appreciated all of the positive feedback from you, thank you! Please know that we will be more than happy to remove this for you without hesitation.”
Owner Emily Chan said this has been in place for more than a year.
“We’ve only done this for a year and a half right,” Chan said. So, at the end of last year, we were able to cut a very small check, cause that was it. There wasn’t a lot left over, but there was a little bit, to the employees who were on health insurance,” Chan said. ‘Well, this year, it covered every single thing, and it was $2,000 off which means that 4% is just like it’s almost the perfect amount of money to cover everyone’s premiums.”
So why is the restaurant doing this?
“We feel like there’s a pretty huge crisis going on with health insurance. No one can afford it. Nothing has worked. We still have an employee that got turned down from health insurance this year. We have three different carries for our small team, and we just felt like if we put it as a line item, then it would highlight that there’s an issue here and we need to pay attention to it,” Chan said.
Recently, the owner’s family has received threats about the extra fee. Restaurant staff said one customer in particular was upset about paying $2 extra.
“Someone just wasn’t happy about it. They ate food here, dined in and said nothing while they were here and went online to spill some nastiness about not just
The health insurance but physically threatening Emily and Jen and their kid online,” said Sam Hammer, lead bartender at the restaurant.
“Our owners take care of us by including a little charge for our health insurance and it’s for all of our full-time employees, including me,” Hammer said.
Hammer said he’s been there since 2022, and really needed his own insurance since he just got off his parents.
“I don’t have money like that and so I was just living my life without it and finally found this job randomly and I fell in love with the people and the place and because of them, I’m able to have health insurance. It’s a special thing. It’s not an industry standard at all,” Hammer said. “I appreciate them for taking care of me too,” he added.
Atlanta News First spoke to many customers off camera who each said they were happy to help out the employees.
“It’s been pretty awesome, and we’ve been really busy this weekend just people saying, “Hey I hear what you’re doing for your employees. I work in the restaurant industry, and we never had health insurance,” Chan said.
Chan and Hammer said most of the backlash has come from people in other areas of the country.
“The locals in Cabbagetown were like, this is dope. We have no problem paying a little extra couple of dollars,” Hammer said.
Chan said she hopes this will bring changes to the industry.
“I want people to talk about this. That’s why we have it as a line item, is because I feel like it’s worth a conversation. There’s an issue,” Chan said.
For now, Chan said she’s not changing a thing.
“Not changing a thing. The only thing I would change is if Congress does something, then I can just take that line item off completely and not even worry about it,” Chan said.
Copyright 2024 WANF. All rights reserved.
The Atlanta City Council is working to form a 404 Day Advisory Committee following the shooting death of a 16-year-old girl at this year’s celebration.
The committee would be made up of city council members, community leaders, business owners, and various city department employees.
“We want folks to enjoy our parks. We want all folks to be safe in the city of Atlanta,” said City Council Member Andrea Boone.
The committee is asking for public feedback to evaluate what went wrong on 404 Day and to determine what needs to change.
“We want to hear from you. We want to know what are your concerns, what are the planning concerns, what do the business think? How should we exit and entrance the events,” said Boone.
Sixteen-year-old Tianah Robinson was shot and killed at Piedmont Park during this year’s celebration. She was an innocent bystander, according to police.
A month after her killing, authorities have not named a suspect in the case, despite requests from the public for help with the investigation.
“I remember her just being one of the most innocent persons in the world. Just pure kid,” said Martell Ellis, Robinson’s cousin.
Robinson’s family has been outspoken in calling for improvements in safety at city events like 404 Day.
“I want everybody to remember this is one of Atlanta’s best little people. We lost Atlanta’s best, a nd she had such a promising future, so we have to make sure this doesn’t happen again, we gotta make sure this was not in vain,” said Ellis.
The 404 Day Advisory Committee will meet for 180 days before presenting its findings and proposals.
Best place to live in Georgia
Georgia’s top spot on a recent Niche report list also holds the national crown: Atlantic Station in Atlanta is No. 1 on the list. Niche gave them an A+ in nightlife, health and fitness, commute, and “good for families.”
It’s based on 15 key metrics with the highest weight given to cost of living, percentage of residents with higher education, housing, and the public school quality.
One figure Niche didn’t rank was the crime, but there have been some noteworthy events in the last few months including 1 killed and 2 injured in a shooting a couple weeks ago and a chaotic incident with about 400 juveniles in December.
Cost of living in Atlantic Station
Despite its high mark on the list, Atlantic Station has real room to grow in cost of living, ranking B- by Niche. The median home value is reportedly just over $418,000 while the median rent is $2,145.
Patrons walk by the stores of Atlantic Station in Atlanta.
Atlantic Station is in Fulton County. According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, single adults without children need to make $26.73 an hour. Two adults living together without children need to make $34.55 per hour if one is working, $17.28 if both are working. These figures obviously increase for families with children depending on how many they have.
Things to do in Atlantic Station
Here are some of the entertainment options available at Atlantic Station:
Best restaurants in Atlantic Station
These are some of Atlantic Station’s best restaurants according to lists from TripAdvisor and OpenTable:
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Toscano Ristorante Italiano at Atlantic Station
Top 5 places to live in Georgia
The top five Georgia spots on Niche’s list were all Atlanta neighborhoods. Here they are along with their national rankings:
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Atlantic Station at No. 1
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Buckhead Forest at No. 33
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Buckhead Village at No. 34
Miguel Legoas is a Deep South Connect Team Reporter for USA Today. Find him on Instagram @miguelegoas and email at mlegoas@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Niche gives Atlantic Station an A+ in nightlife, commute, health, more
The Mariners, suddenly drawing from their depth a month into the season, made a waiver claim today, picking up lefty José Suarez from Atlanta.
Mariners fans likely remember Suarez from his lengthy Angels tenure, from the time he signed with the Angels as a free agent out of Venezuela to 2024. Prior to the 2025 season, the Angels traded him to Atlanta in exchange for injury-prone pitcher Ian Anderson (later DFA’d by the Angels and re-claimed by Atlanta). Atlanta transitioned the short king (listed 5’10”) to the bullpen and edited his pitch mix, dropping his sweeper and tweaking his slider to be shorter and more of a traditional gyro slider, resulting in more whiffs on the pitch.
Command remains an issue for Suarez, something that’s persisted since his days as an Angel. As a top-100 prospect almost a decade ago, Suarez seemed slated to anchor the heart of Anaheim’s rotation. Instead, the classic control artist trap befell him. Lacking the velo (low-90s heat) or fastball traits to miss bats easily, and having more middling results on his changeup and breaking ball which can cut through Triple-A hitters, Suarez has had to nibble the edges and has seen his walk rate swell as a big leaguer in efforts to avoid barrels. Those issues, along with health troubles, saw him faded from the Angels’ plans.
Although he had a solid first season as a Brave, this year has been a struggle, leading to much sturm und drang amongst the Braves fanbase, who are all too happy to see Suarez go. As for how he fits in the Mariners bullpen, that’s a bit of a puzzle; the Mariners have a third lefty (with his own command issues, even) in Josh Simpson, although Simpson has options, where Suarez does not.
However, the Mariners are well-familiar with Suarez, having seen him for so many years in the AL West, so there must be something there the pitching brain trust hopes to unlock. The other bonus Suarez brings is length; as a former starter, he can cover multiple innings if necessary, which it’s been more often than not lately as three-fifths of the Mariners rotation continue to turn in shorter outings. By his dint of a changeup-first offspeed repertoire, Suarez is somewhat more evenly split in his performance against hitters by handedness, instead of a traditional lefty specialist.
In a corresponding move, OF Rhylan Thomas was designated for assignment.
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