After leading the Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA) for 13 years, Karen Bremer will retire from her posts as CEO and president on Jan. 16, the trade group announced Thursday.
Her successor has not been named.
Bremer has spent a total of 50 years in the restaurant business, joining the association after a long run as a restaurant operator. Just prior to joining the GRA, she was president of Peasant Restaurant Group, a collection of restaurants that broke with the formality of fine dining while serving far more ambitious fare than what would be found in many casual restaurants. At one point, the company had 34 outlets in the area, operating under such names as Peasant and Pleasant Peasant.
Earlier, she owned and operated the restaurants Dailey’s and City Grill.
Bremer has one of the longer tenures among state restaurant association executives. Among the causes she pursued on behalf of the group was permitting the sale of alcohol for off-premise consumption during the pandemic, and defeating a proposal to raise the cost of a Georgia liquor license by 300%.
“While we’re certainly going to miss Karen, we are a much stronger organization and industry as a result of her leadership,” said Justin Triplett, the local concessionaire who serves as the GRA’s current chairman. “We wish her the best in her retirement and look forward to the road ahead.”
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