Thorntons open new NONA restaurant in old downtown Athens Harry Bissetts spot; not in default on development in Oconee
Many Georgia restaurant fans will fondly recall Harry Bissett's in downtown Athens at 297 East Broad Street. This longtime New Orleans themed Cajun eatery has closed since the first of the year primarily due to lack of payment of taxes, but a host of other ills had tainted this recent convert to chain, and series of poor business decisions doomed the once grand dame of the Athens seafood restaurant. Along come Mike and Nona Thornton of Watkinsville with a plan to resurrect the style and substance of Bissett's with their new N ew O rleans ' N A thens restaurant called NONA in the same Broad Street location that was once a bank in Athens. Contrary to recent reports in the Oconee Enterprise newspaper, Thornton in not in bankruptcy over the development behind the Oconee County Campus of Gainesville State College on Bishop Farms Parkway South by Georgia Aquatics Center (although proceedings have begun against his partner in the project and the bank has refused to finance ...