A Neighborhood Breakdown of Atlanta Restaurants Planning to Open in 2020

While an impressive number of restaurants opened in 2019, a few coming attractions announced throughout last year still have yet to open. That “coming attraction” status will likely change to “certified open” over the course of this year.

Need a reminder of the restaurants yet to come? Check out the list of notable restaurants announced last year set to open around Atlanta in 2020.

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KENNESAW

Fu Li Zhang and Rachel Yuan, the owners of the super popular hand-pulled noodle house LanZhou Ramen on Buford Highway, opened Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth in November. A second location opens in Kennesaw next year. Zhang and Yuan also plan to open a second LanZhou Ramen, but declined to disclose the exact location.

DULUTH

Chicago chef Chuck Woods opens a “contemporary seasonal” restaurant called Falling Rabbit at Parsons Alley in downtown Duluth this spring. Not much else is known about the establishment other than the name and that its design incorporates touches of art nouveau and clean lines to accompany the “whimsical approach” to the chef’s menu.

ALPHARETTA

A third location of South African restaurant Biltong Bar, known for its beef jerkies and boozy cocktails, opens this spring at Avalon in Alpharetta. The restaurant takes its name from biltong, a type of South African dried, cured meat.

The final two stalls inside the food hall at the 135-acre Halcyon development in southern Forsyth County open early this year. Frenchie’s Royal House of Frites and Meats and pizza spot Holmes Slice join Gu’s Dumplings, taco stand Tocayo, Pita Mediterranean Street Food, and Sweet Tuna Poke at the Alpharetta food hall.

Eleven Hospitality Group, the owners behind Carson Kitchen, are in the process of staffing the Alpharetta location of their popular Las Vegas hot spot at the old courthouse building, part of Alpharetta City Center. For chef and Eleven partner Cory Harwell, this is a sort of homecoming. He began his culinary career in a Woodstock restaurant years ago. Carson Kitchen is known for burgers like the butter burger with boursin or jerk turkey with mango chutney and shared snacks such as gyro tacos and smoked trout rillette.

SANDY SPRINGS

Chef Todd Ginsberg, Jennifer and Ben Johnson, and Shelley Sweet (Fred’s Meat and Bread, the Canteen) open a second location of their Emory Point Jewish deli and restaurant The General Muir early this year at the City Springs development in Sandy Springs.

Denver-based Snooze an A.M. Eatery will open for breakfast and brunch at the Gateway complex on Roswell Road in Sandy Springs. The restaurant serves breakfast all day — or until 2:30 p.m — and should open in early 2020. The menu is broken up into sections like all manner of egg dishes from huevos rancheros to breakfast pot pie, a selection of benedicts, sandwiches like a Reuben, pancakes, and lighter fare such as avocado toast and an egg white omelette.

BATTERY ATLANTA

Fan T’Asia, a Cantonese Chinese restaurant from the owners of Bo Bo Garden on Buford Highway, is the latest stall to become part of Ph’east food hall at Battery Atlanta in Cobb County. Ph’east, located across from the Aloft Hotel and next to Wahlburgers, was to open at the end of 2019.

Doraville Lao restaurant Snackboxe Bistro plans to open a second location at the upcoming Battery Atlanta food hall Ph’east next to Wahlburgers on Legends Place.

BROOKHAVEN

Grindhouse Killer Burgers is opening its eighth location at 2573 Apple Valley Road in Brookhaven at the forthcoming Dresden Pointe development. It will be fashioned after the Decatur location and include a 21 and up rooftop bar. Owner Alex Brounstein, who told Eater Atlanta last April he was considering Brookhaven for the next location, plans to open in the city north of Buckhead in early 2020.

BUCKHEAD

The owners of Southern brunch spot Ms. Iceys Kitchen and Bar and Caribbean restaurant Negril Village signed a lease to take over the former 1 Kept restaurant space in Buckhead and open a restaurant possibly known as Apt. 4B. Little is known about what owners Sim Walker and Glenn Wilson have planned in terms of food or when the restaurant opens.

Botanico Kitchen and Bar, owned by chef Luis Damian, replaces Rise and Revelry on the second floor of Savi Provisions on Pharr Road. The restaurant, serving dishes from the Puebla and Guadalajara regions of Mexico. It’s unclear when the restaurant plans to open. Eater Atlanta reached out for details.

Chef Linton Hopkins replaces his fine dining stalwart with the “more approachable,” a la carte restaurant Eugene and Elizabeth’s (named for his grandparents) early this year. Eugene and Elizabeth’s menu, which appears to be a mix of Restaurant Eugene and neighboring Holeman and Finch Public House, includes soups such as gazpacho, salads, and entrees like chicken with goat cheese as well as snapper, snowy grouper, and Gulf shrimp and oysters. Restaurant Eugene’s Southern vegetables served in copper dishes is also planned for the menu.

The Buckhead location of downtown Atlanta Latin restaurant Alma Cocina was to open at the corner of Peachtree Street and Piedmont Road in December. The Fifth Group-backed restaurant first opened at One Ninety One Peachtree Tower in 2011 and serves dishes such as roasted chicken mole, fried avocado tacos, and a pork lechoncito (suckling pig) tamale. Longtime Alma Cocina chef Chad Clevenger plans to lead the kitchen in Buckhead, while his former sous chef, Robert Rambo, takes over at the downtown restaurant.

BOLTON

Siblings Anita Hsu and Howard Hsu, the owners behind Sweet Auburn BBQ on North Highland, open Amar Bien at the forthcoming Westside Village development on Marietta Boulevard. Amar Bien opens this spring for lunch and dinner and will be a full-service Mexican restaurant that emphasizes vegetables. It includes a full bar which opens onto a shared breezeway with a fire pit in the open-container complex.

UNDERWOOD HILLS

Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q opens a second restaurant this summer at the Works, an 80-acre development on the edge of Underwood Hills that includes the Andrew Zimmern-backed Chattahoochee Food Works. At nearly 10,000-square-feet and seating 325 people, the new Jonathan and Justin Fox endeavor includes an expanded kitchen, bar, more customer parking, and a 35-seat covered patio.

Fire Maker Brewing will open in a former warehouse along Chattahoochee Avenue in the westside neighborhood of Underwood Hills. It could open early this year. The brewery’s taproom features up to 30 taps, seating at the bar, at high top tables, and other communal areas, and roll up garage doors opening to a covered patio. Plans to include a private events room and community office space with desks and outlets are also in the works.

Round Trip Brewing is apparently seeking to acquire property along Seaboard Industrial Boulevard on the edge of the northwest Atlanta neighborhood of Underwood Hills. The brewery hopes to open this year.

The 16,000-square-foot, Andrew Zimmern-back Chattahoochee Food Works (CFW) opens on the edge of Underwood Hills later this year. According to a press release, the restaurateur and host of Bizarre Foods is the “culinary advisor” to Robert Montwaid, the market’s operator, and will help “develop a unique and diverse talent mix” at the “boutique food market.” CFW mostly follows the established food hall formula, with restaurant stalls that feature “international fare,” “artisanal” shops, chef events, a test kitchen, an indoor-outdoor bar, and an all-weather patio with a firewall overlooking a quarter-mile park.

BLANDTOWN

An Atlanta location of Detroit-based gaming bar Fowling Warehouse is headed to English Street in the Westside neighborhood of Blandtown off of Huff Road. Fowling [FOH-ling] combines bowling and football. Plans for the 25,000-square-foot Fowling Warehouse include up to 20 fowling lanes and a bar, along with a “retail-type” space. Fowling Warehouse accommodates up to 200 people, with up to 80 people in the gaming area.

HOME PARK

Cascade Road Haitian restaurant the Spice House takes over the long-vacant Bobby and June’s Kountry Kitchen space on 14th Street in Home Park. The owners also plan to open a location in Lithonia on Panola Road. The restaurant serves dishes like shrimp and grits, jerk chicken, crawfish mac and cheese, whole fish plates, and turkey wings with black rice.

Hattie B’s is opening a second Atlanta location at 10th Street and Howell Mill Road in Home Park. The new Hattie B’s, located around the corner from Steven Satterfield’s Miller Union, should open this spring. The 4,800-square-foot building, with seating for up to 200 people, will become Hattie B’s largest location yet. Current design plans include a recessed patio for outdoor dining and games like corn hole.

WEST END

Edgewood Pizza — the self-proclaimed home of “king slices” — plans to open a second location in West End. The Old Fourth Ward (O4W) pizzeria filed permits with city of Atlanta begin construction at the Sky Lofts complex on Oak Street near the West End Mall. The restaurant also serves calzones and wings, and is open late nights on Edgewood Avenue. The owners are currently renovating the Edgewood Avenue pizzeria and opening an adjacent cocktail bar called Handlebar.

ADAIR PARK

A location of Charleston-based Rodney Scott’s BBQ opens at the Met in the southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Adair Park near the West End MARTA station this spring. The restaurant, owned by James Beard Award winning chef and pitmaster Rodney Scott, offers South Carolina-style whole hog barbecue, ribs, and chicken as well as Southern sides like collards and Scott’s popular cornbread, and banana pudding by the pint or quart.

Hip-hop-inspired Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria should open its second Atlanta location on Metropolitan Parkway soon. The Adair Park location plans to remain open late and include a takeout window to serve students attending Morehouse, Clark-Atlanta University, and Spelman.

Family owned restaurant Buenos Dias Cafe plans opens a new Latin market called La Bodega by this summer. The grocery/lunch counter will serve the community at arts incubator the MET.

Art and event space The Mammal Gallery plans to turn the iconic blue water tower at The Met into a two-story coffee and cocktail bar. 8arm and INK’s Isabella Corwell leads the bar program. The first two floors of the tower will convert to a coffee and cocktail bar while a patio surrounds the base. Mammal Gallery’s bar will service the venue and be open for regular hours.

FLORIDA HEIGHTS/SOUTHWEST ATLANTA

Soul cookbook author chef Todd Richards plans to open his new barbecue restaurant in the former Anderson’s Old Fashioned Bar-B-Que on Willis Mills Road in the southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Florida Heights. It’s located near Hamilton Holmes and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, south of I-20 and west of Westview Cemetery. The restaurant’s menu includes Southern and Chicago-style barbecue as well as dishes from his cookbook and now-closed Rolling Bones barbecue. The restaurant should open by summer.

?WESTSIDE?

It’s still unclear just when and where Houston’s Turkey Leg Hut will open in Atlanta for its “world famous” and celebrity-endorsed stuffed turkey legs. The restaurant’s turkey legs are smoked until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender, then stuffed with dirty rice and topped with everything from shrimp and Alfredo sauce to red onions, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese. Sources indicate owners Lynn Price and Nakia Price are still planning to open an Atlanta location.

PIEDMONT HEIGHTS

Chef Pasquale “Pat” Pascarella, co-owner of the White Bull in Decatur, is close to opening his Neapolitan pizza and Italian restaurant Grana on Piedmont Avenue in the Piedmont Heights neighborhood. Grana, located across from Grindhouse Killer Burgers and a block from Fat Matt’s Rib Shack, will feature wood-fired pizzas and Pascarella’s handmade pastas, for which he’s become known for at The White Bull.

VIRGINIA-HIGHLAND

After finding success with his two pizzerias — O4W Pizza and Nina & Rafi — Anthony Spina will open a new restaurant in part of the former Goin’ Coastal space in Virginia-Highland. Spina says he’s planning to focus “heavily” on Sicilian-style pizza.

It appears the opening of chef Nhan Le’s (8ARM, Three Heart Coffee, Octopus Bar, So Ba) Beltline grilled seafood restaurant Ama might be stalled after a fire broke out inside Paris on Ponce in November. The restaurant was slated to take over a portion of the building.

Bantam Pub owners Tim Lance and Richard Baum will open a divey sandwich bar called Motorboat in the former Marco’s Pita space, located between the Bookhouse Pub and The Local on Ponce de Leon Avenue. Motorboat is divided into two distinct spaces: a dive bar on one side and a “casual” sandwich shop specializing in New York, Italian, Jewish, and Middle Eastern deli sandwiches on the other. The “Blade Runner 2049 build-out” includes a rooftop deck overlooking Ponce.

MIDTOWN

El Burro Pollo opens in the next few weeks inside what’s being billed as a “chef-driven” food hall at the new Coda development on Spring Street at Tech Square. Much like Santiago’s pop-up, the restaurant serves “border town-style” burritos and other Mexican dishes.

A second and intown location of the recently opened Avondale Estates Vietnamese restaurant Vietvana opens on Spring Street in Midtown soon. Owned by Dinh Tran and Khanh Dang, the planned location is one block north of the Centergy One complex, also home to the Canteen mini food hall near Tech Square.

A South American cafe and wine bar called El Viñedo Local opens on Peachtree Street, one block north of the Fox Theatre, early this year. The cafe plans to serve “South American inspired wine, coffee, and small plates” and hopes to “fit in effortlessly” with Midtown’s bar and restaurant scene. Dishes likely to make the menu include empanadas and ceviche as well as other “Latin” fare meant to pair well with wine. El Viñedo Local should open for coffee and breakfast in the morning before transitioning to wine and dinner in the evenings and late night drinks.

Midtown will soon be home to a San Francisco institution when Anthony Bourdain-approved burger joint Sam’s opens soon at the Sixty 11th Apartments on 11th Street. Sam’s-Atlanta could include between 20 to 50 varieties of burgers, close to “200 different types” of sandwiches, nearly 50 local and Bay area beers on tap, and wines from the Napa and Sonoma California regions.

The owners behind ramen shops Hajime and Umaido plan to open Kin No Tori Ramen Bar some time this year at Midtown Place on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The Whole Foods-anchored shopping complex resides across the street from Ponce City Market. The menu highlights a chicken broth-based ramen supposedly “made from scratch” and without the use of artificial flavors or additives. In addition to ramen, the restaurant also offers a variety of Japanese street foods and yakitori (skewered, grilled meats).

Persian restaurant Rumi’s Kitchen opens its third Atlanta location this spring at Colony Square on the corner of 14th and Peachtree streets in midtown. The restaurant, owned by chef Ali Mesghali, takes over the space previously planned for Iselle Kitchen + Bar, from San Diego chef Chris Gentile. The menu runs the gamut from labneh and dolmeh to a wide variety of kabobs and large entrees like lamb shank served with lentils and basmati rice.

Chef Linton Hopkins relocates his gastropub and cocktail bar Holeman and Finch to Colony Square this spring. The new location includes an expanded menu along with lunch and the popular double stack cheeseburger. The 4,000-square-foot Colony Square space provides the restaurant room for a patio and a larger bar and dining room.

OLD FOURTH WARD

Chef Guy Wong opens Ruby Chow’s in the Old Fourth Ward this winter. Ruby Chow’s will take over the former Repast space at the Ponce Springs Lofts on Glen Iris Drive, across from Ponce City Market and City Winery.

After opening “modern Israeli” restaurant Aziza at Westside Provisions District last July, Tal Baum readies for the debut of its casual sister, Rina. Located at the Ford Factory Lofts on Ponce, Rina promises a menu of pita sandwiches, skewers, mezze, hummus, and salads along the Eastside Beltline trail when it opens January 13.

A Vietnamese street food restaurant called Lady Ha opens at the Ford Factory Lofts near the new Kroger on Ponce De Leon Avenue early this summer. Think banh mi, dumplings, spring and egg rolls, and noodle soups along the Beltline. The restaurant, owned by Ha Thu Kieu, is located on the ground level of the building just off of the Eastside trail across from Ponce City Market.

A third location of Slutty Vegan and its line-inducing meatless burgers heads to the Old Fourth Ward some time this year. Details are scarce, but the wildly popular Westview vegan burger restaurant plans to open on Edgewood Avenue next door to Edgewood Pizza and across from the Sound Table. A second location is slated to open in Jonesboro.

Biggerstaff Brewing Company opens next door to the award-winning restaurant Staplehouse on Edgewood Avenue in early 2020. Owners Clay Davies and Sarah Davies also nabbed Staplehouse chef and Edgewood neighbor Ryan Smith to help create the food menu for their Old Fourth Ward brewpub.

KROG STREET MARKET

Tampa-based Cuban restaurant and sangria bar Hemingway’s opens to the left of Richards’ Southern Fried inside Krog Street Market this spring. The restaurant serves snacks like chicharrones (fried pork rinds), tostones, yucca fries topped with shredded pork, chicharrones, melted cheese, and crispy onions, as well as build-your-own Cuban bowls, the restaurant’s popular Cuban sandwich, and a Cuban hamburger called the la frita cubana.

REYNOLDSTOWN

Chef Richard Tang of Char Korean Bar & Grill and chef Mike Yang (formerly Ba Bellies) open their Asian seafood restaurant Girl Diver at Madison Yards in Reynoldstown soon. Tang says the 2,500-square-foot restaurant, which seats approximately 100 people, centers around Asian seafood boils and includes a 500-square-foot patio. The name Girl Diver refers, in part, to the nearly 2,000-year-old tradition of Japanese and Korean women divers or ama and haenyeo — “sea woman” — who collected pearls, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, and abalone from the bottom of the ocean.

EDGEWOOD

Chop Shop owners Rusty Bowers and Wes and Charlotte Swancy of hog farm Riverview Farms open a wine shop called the Pour House next door to the butcher shop later this year. Miles Macquarrie (Kimball House, Watchman’s Seafood and Spirits) is helping Bowers and the Swancys select the wines for the Pour House. The shop would also allow beer and wine to be consumed on the covered patio.

GRANT PARK

Elsewhere Brewing, owned by Samuel Kazmer and Sara Kazmer, opens at the Beacon in Grant Park this June. Elsewhere plans to brew “lower-gravity, sessionable classics inspired by the beers of Continental Europe” such as a Bohemian pilsner, dark Czech lager, Belgian saison, Bavarian hefeweizen, German alt, and a gose as well as an IPA and lambic styles. The brewery will also include a “unique food program inspired by” the Kazmer’s travels throughout Argentina.

Filipino restaurant Estrellita hopes to move into the small Woodward Avenue retail complex that houses Manny’s pub and Jimmy John’s in Grant Park by spring. It’s owned by Hope Webb and Walter Cortado. The restaurant plans to serve fare and family recipes from Pampanga, a province northwest of Manilla in the Philippines.

BENTEEN PARK

Red’s Beer Garden opens by the spring along Boulevard in the Benteen Park neighborhood, just south of Grant Park. Red’s, owned by Kristen Sumpter and Ed Sumpter, will offer beer, wine, and cider on draft and from self-serve refrigerators as well as a variety of hot dogs from Atlanta-based Pigman Goods.

KIRKWOOD

Bellsmouth Cafe and 3 Heart Coffee Roastery are the first restaurants to sign on at the historic Pratt Pullman District development taking shape along Rogers Street in Kirkwood. The all-day cafe and coffee shop, owned by Skip Englebrecht and chef Nhan Le of 8ARM and 3 Heart and artist George Long, opens by the end of this year.

SUMMERHILL

A new sandwich counter called How Crispy Express opens early this year along Georgia Avenue’s emerging restaurant row in Summerhill. The walk-up window sandwich joint is apparently the first in-town collaboration from Benumkermi Hospitality Syndicate, which includes Ticonderoga Club’s Greg Best and Bart Sasso, chef William Silbernagel (The Bookhouse Pub, Argosy), and Atlanta architect Luke Wilkinson.

Chef Richard Tang (Char Korean Bar & Grill) opens game bar Press Start this spring in the Summerhill neighborhood. The two-story, old school arcade and bar resides across the street from Halfway Crooks Beer along Georgia Avenue’s bustling dining strip. An assortment of classic arcade games and virtual reality consoles will be found on the first floor, while a rooftop patio will include shuffleboard, foosball, darts, and board games. As for food and drinks, expect Asian small plates and street foods, cocktails, beer, and wines by the glass.

Chef Bea Lewis, the founder of supper series Hush Dinner Club, opens a restaurant called Concept on Georgia Avenue in Summerhill later this year. While the interior is fashioned after a 1950s diner, the food on the menu is distinctively “modern American”.

Hot Dog Pete’s and Hero Doughnuts join an array of independently-owned restaurants and chefs taking their pop-ups permanent in Summerhill east of Georgia State Stadium. Both should open by spring.

Redacted Basement Drink Parlor, the conspiracy theory-driven cocktail bar owned by Judy Ho and Jake Karmin, is still on track to open later this year on Georgia Avenue.

The Real Mexican Vittles mobile kitchen, owned by Helio Bernal, will open Mexican gastropub D Boca N Boca on Georgia Avenue in Summerhill serving tacos, tamales, ceviches, aguachiles, and fresh made salsas. The restaurant also includes a bar and an outdoor patio. It should open by spring.

Jarrett Stieber, the chef behind the popular, perennial pop-up Eat Me Speak Me, is opening his first restaurant called Little Bear on Georgia Avenue in Summerhill. Stieber hopes to open the 1,300-square-foot, 30-seat restaurant by the beginning of spring. Little Bear is named for his dog — a very fluffy and friendly Pyrenees mountain dog, whose real name is Fernando and resembles a small bear.

DECATUR

After years of running mobile Cuban bakery and sandwich shop Buena Gente from a teardrop camper or ventanita (“little window”,) Manny Rodriguez and Stacie Antich plan to open their first permanent location in Decatur. Buena Gente opens this spring in the former Nectar space on Clairmont Road — the same complex as the Po’Boy Shop, Community Q BBQ, and Ms. Icey’s Kitchen and Bar.