5 Atlanta Restaurant Openings to Get Excited About This Summer

It looks like 2023 is shaping up to be a banner year for restaurant openings around Atlanta. Several hotly anticipated restaurants opened over the last six months, including vegan Latin food restaurant La Semilla, cocktail lounge and restaurant Whoopsie’s, TydeTate Kitchen Thai restaurant along historic Hotel Row, and coastal cuisine restaurant Carmel. Summer tends to be a slower period for restaurant openings, ramping up again in the fall. But there are a few restaurants you should keep your eye on that are scheduled to debut this summer. 

Eater is tracking the progress of the following five hotly anticipated restaurants scheduled to open this summer around Atlanta.

Southern National

Location: 72 Georgia Avenue, Summerhill
Who: Chef Duane Nutter and Reggie Washington
Projected opening: June 29

Chef Duane Nutter and restaurateur Reggie Washington finally bring Southern National to the bustling dining district on Georgia Avenue in June. This is a homecoming for both Nutter and Washington, who worked together One Flew South at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, before departing the city in 2016. They would go on to open Southern National in Mobile, Alabama, (Washington’s hometown) a year later. The partners closed the Mobile location in 2022 to relocate the restaurant to Summerhill. The menu features a few of the Mobile location’s most popular dishes, like the mussels and collard greens, along with several new dishes, such as Creole-cured salmon and potato blini, fried lobster tail, and berbere-spiced fried chicken thigh. And Nutter and Washington are reuniting with two longtime friends and former colleagues in Southern National, partnering with Ticonderoga Club owners Greg Best and Paul Calvert, who will oversee the beverage program at the restaurant.

Breaker Breaker

Location: 921 Wylie Street, Reynoldstown
Who: Alex Brounstein and Johnny Farrow
Projected opening: July 1

This mostly outdoor, open-air bar and restaurant from the team behind Grindhouse Killer Burgers is expected to open July 1 as part of the redevelopment of the Stein Steel and Supply Co. property. Situated along the Eastside Beltline in Reynoldstown, Breaker Breaker is meant to be a casual way-stop along the trail where folks dine on seafood dishes and sandwiches while sipping frozen drinks, ice-cold beer, and wine. Former the Lawrence chef and founder of pop-up Stolen Goods, Maximilian Hines, is set to lead the kitchen at Breaker Breaker. Check out these photos from Urbanize Atlanta of the nearly finished restaurant. 

Brush Sushi

Location: 3035 Peachtree Road, Buckhead Village
Who: Chef Jason Liang and John Chen
Projected opening: July/August

After closing Brush Sushi Izakaya in Decatur last year, chef Jason Liang and John Chen reopen their popular restaurant in its new home this summer at Buckhead Village. Expect a much more upscale and modern design befitting befitting the luxury dining and retail district, complete with carvings of hinoki (a Japanese cypress tree) and a private room seating 17 people offering omakase tastings from Liang. The Buckhead restaurant centers mainly on sushi and omakase experiences, along with grilled dishes cooked over Binchotan charcoal. Chen says to expect some of Brush’s more popular a la carte dishes available on the menu in Buckhead and to see the restaurant open for both lunch and dinner. Liang and Chen plan to open cafe and bar Lucky Star at Star Metals this winter and a second location of Cuddlefish next year at the High Street development in Dunwoody.

Elsewhere Brewing

Location: 950 West Marietta Street, Westside Paper
Who: Sara and Sam Kazmer
Projected opening: September

The second location of the popular Grant Park brewery and restaurant is on the horizon, anticipated to open toward the end of the summer. Construction is well underway. Barring any delays due to permitting or supply chain issues, that late-summer target date is almost assured. Taking up residence in the new Westside Paper complex on West Marietta Street, this location of Elsewhere Brewing will be slightly different from the original. Unlike in Grant Park, the westside location will not feature food, as many of their future neighbors at the development are restaurants. Beer is the name of the game here, with a design calling for an English-style bar and open spaces for seating and mingling with brews inspired by the warehouses in Berlin.

Finca to Filter and Side Saddle Wine Saloon

Location: 680 Hamilton Avenue, Boulevard Heights
Who: Kayla Bellman
Projected opening: September

Kayla Bellman, the owner of Finca to Filter in West End and Adair Park, brings the Southside Beltline trail an all-day coffee shop serving frozen desserts and a natural wine bar right next door. Located in two repurposed buildings part of the Penman complex on Hamilton Avenue, expect Finca to Filter to feature its coffee and signature coffee concoctions, along with breakfast burritos, egg dishes, and toasts in the morning, followed by frozen desserts like frozen bananas, chocolate bars made from fair trade chocolate and cacao, and ice cream and champagne in the afternoons. Next door at Side Saddle Wine Saloon, the 20-seat wine bar will feature natural and low-intervention wines by the glass and bottle, many from women- and femme-owned wine producers. The latter ties in with the philosophy behind the Finca to Filter brand, which works to highlight LGBTQ+, women, and BIPOC purveyors and community members.

Source: Eater Atlanta