Years in the making, the College Football Hall of Fame opened in August adjacent to the Georgia World Congress Center—one of the largest convention facilities in the country. With more than 94,000 square feet, it has several individual spaces for events and offers buyouts for events of 3,500 guests. Spaces include a 45-yard indoor football field that holds 1,450 for receptions, a 3-D Game Day Theater that seats 150, and the Quad, which holds 700 for receptions and has a unique wall of college football helmets.
Renovations at Parish wrapped up in August to reveal a new brasserie and café concept. The menu offers signatures dishes such as goat cheese and beet jam on toast and kale pesto sourdough gnocchi with porcini. The rustic-looking eatery seats 40 people for dinner or holds 50 for receptions. It can also hold receptions on its patio.
One of the latest additions to Krog Street Market, French-American brasserie the Luminary opened in August. The 3,500-square-foot space seats 140 guests in its dining room and 24 in a private dining room. Additionally, there is a 400-square-foot patio that seats 47 guests. The Luminary boasts an impressive raw bar, a diverse craft cocktail program, and an extensive craft beer and boutique wine list. Buyouts are available.
The Sweet Auburn BBQ food truck opened a brick-and-mortar location in Poncey-Highland in March. The restaurant includes a 1,000-square-foot bar and a 1,500-square-foot dining room. Its classic Southern barbecue fare includes pulled pork bowls, Curb Market fried ribs, Jamaican jerk collard greens, and Asian pear coleslaw. The restaurant seats 80, and buyouts are available.
Located in downtown Decatur, Makan serves Asian comfort food from great food cities such as Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul. The 3,300-square-foot restaurant seats 130 and is available for buyout. It includes a private dining room that seats 60, a 30-seat bar, and a patio that seats 40. All three sections can be booked separately. The space, designed by Square Feet Studio, features an open kitchen, a chef’s counter, and a full bar with a 14-foot-long communal table made of reclaimed wood. It opened in July.
A new addition to the Westin Atlanta Perimeter North, Savor Bar & Kitchen opened in September with indoor and outdoor seating. The 4,100-square-foot bar and restaurant seats 120 in its dining room. Additionally, a 550-square-foot private dining room seats 36, and a terrace seats 56. Savor’s farm-to-table dishes are inspired by the flavors of the South and include dishes such as pecan peach planked Scottish salmon and vision tartare. Buyouts are available.
KR Steakbar redesigned its private dining room in October, giving it a speakeasy-style atmosphere. The 1,800-square-foot room has its own entrance, restrooms, and bar; it seats 50 or holds 75 people for receptions.
Located in Alpharetta’s historic district, South Main Kitchen started serving its ingredient-driven cuisine in August. The rustic 1,900-square foot eatery serves dishes such as grilled polenta cakes, pork osso buck, and pork belly sandwiches. Its outdoor space includes a patio and a rooftop bar and patio.
The smokehouse and raw bar the Pig & the Pearl opened in July. A one-stop shop for all things smoked, the Pig & the Pearl offers a range of smoked meats and raw seafood from beef brisket to smoked or raw oysters. The 4,900-square-foot restaurant seats 160 guests, including a private dining room that seats 32.
Basque-inspired Cooks & Soldiers opened in November on the west side. Castelluci Hospitality Group’s latest concept offers a modern approach to the rustic cooking style of southwestern Europe. The 4,600-square-foot restaurant has a pintxo, or small snacks, bar with ready-made bruschetta or skewered snacks and a bar with a variety of Spanish and French wines and Basque ciders.
St. Cecilia is the latest restaurant from chef Ford Fry. Located in the Pinnacle Building, the coastal European eatery's design from Meyer Davis Studio emphasizes the natural light in the the 11,000-square-foot space and uses vintage details such as distressed wall mirrors and reclaimed wood flooring. The restaurant seats 160 and has three marble stone chef's tables that each seat four guests. A second-floor private room seats 40.
The haute cuisine restaurant Nikolai's Roof, located on the 30th floor of the Hilton Atlanta, reopened in January following a $1 million renovation to the 7,500-square-foot space. The redesign, from CMMI, was inspired by cold Russian winters and ice, and decor includes glass chandeliers with intertwined glass ribbons, columns finished with a decorative cracked-glass effect, and fabrics and leathers in cream and grey. The dining room seats 70, and the lounge holds 200 for receptions; it is available for buyouts as well as private dining.
After a $27 million renovation announced in February 2013, the Holiday Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport—North offers the brand's new active lobby concept with an open floor plan and signature design elements. The 330-room hotel has 12,000 square feet of meeting space, including a 3,500-square-foot ballroom. The property includes a full-service restaurant, bar, media lounge, and its new business center concept, eBar.
JCT Kitchen & Bar, located in the Westside Urban Market, unveiled a remodeled interior in December. The changes from Smith Hanes Design included new banquettes, lighting, and a 12-foot poured concrete bar with leather-padded stainless barstools. The Southern, seasonal restaurant seats 165.
Cuts Steakhouse opened downtown in January, adding a Southern bent to the traditional steak house with dark wooden walls and dishes such as fried lobster tail. The restaurant has several options for groups including two private dining rooms—one seats 88 while the other seats 56—as well as semiprivate areas that are separated by beaded curtains.
Formerly a Holiday Inn, Hotel Capitol Park Atlanta became an independent hotel in January under new ownership. The hotel, located across the street from Turner Field, has 24,000 square feet of flexible meeting space including the Peachtree Ballroom, which is 5,400 square feet and holds 650 guests for receptions and 480 for banquets. It can be combined with two other rooms to hold receptions for 920 people or banquets for 680.
The Italian restaurant Osteria Cibo Rustico, located in the Toco Hills Shopping Center, opened in October. The 2,482-square-foot restaurant seats 73 inside, 28 on a patio, and 22 at the bar.
Formerly Gilbert's Cafe and Bar, the gastropub G’s Midtown opened December 7 in Midtown from the same ownership team. The renovated 1,500-square-foot space seats 36 and features design touches such as exposed brick walls, butcher-block tabletops with aluminum chairs, a concrete bar, and multiple televisions.
Chef duo Shaun Doty and Lance Gummere have opened its third restaurant, Bantam & Biddy, a casual chicken concept in Midtown. The name refers to two poultry breed sizes, and the Southern-style menu includes pastured poultry and seasonal, organic vegetables. The 2,000-square-foot restaurant seats 75 guests inside and has an awning-covered patio with seating.
Kevin Rathbun Steak added a new outdoor space called the Beltline Patio, drawing its name from the nearby Atlanta Beltline. The 926-square-foot space, which debuted late last year, has radiant heaters, a 12-foot-high wood-burning brick fireplace, and stand-up tables.
The contemporary dining room at Atlas, the new restaurant at the St. Regis Atlanta hotel in Buckhead, displays art from the Lewis Collection, including pieces from Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Francis Bacon, and other famed artists. The restaurant, part of the Tavistock Restaurant Collection, serves a menu of local and seasonal American cuisine with European influences. It seats 106 and has a private dining room that seats 12. It opened in January.
Housed in a 1920s-era warehouse that previously served as director Tyler Perry's studio space, Krog Street Market opened in November and is home to restaurants, retailers, and market stalls selling fresh produce and prepared foods. Restaurant spaces include Craft Izakaya, a Japanese-fusion-theme-space that seats 96; the Cockentrice, a charcuterie-centric restaurant that seats about 130; and the Luminary from Top Chef contestant Eli Kirshtein, which seats about 140 and has a 50-person patio and a private dining room that seats 36. Superica, set to open in late February, will seat 130 people inside and 40 in an outdoor space.
A renovation at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta completed in August updated the hotel's 30,000 square feet of meeting space. The new 3,650-square-foot Highland Ballroom holds 260 guests banquet-style or holds 300 for receptions. A face-lift to the existing Grand Ballroom added modern decor, new lighting, Wi-Fi technology, audiovisual equipment, and touch-screen systems. The overall 9,700 square feet of meeting space seats 750 guests or holds 1,250 for receptions.
The Omni Hotel at CNN Center is now the only hotel directly connected to the Georgia World Congress Center after the addition of a $6.8 million, 116-foot-long connector. Constructed of glass and steel, it was completed at the end of 2014 and allows business travelers a walkable passageway when commuting between the hotel and the 3.9 million square feet of meeting and exhibit space at the center.
The recently revamped Midtown restaurant Two Urban Licks reopened in October with an updated menu from new executive chef Michael Bertozzi. The eye-catching design features gold leaf paint, dramatic oversize light fixtures, and a "wine on tap" wall with 72 barrels of wine. The 280-seat restaurant has several spaces for private events. The new private dining room, called the Ballroom, seats 40 guests and overlooks the main dining room, a courtyard with a retractable roof, and a "living wall" of floor-to-ceiling greenery. The space seats 60 or holds 90 for receptions. A patio and herb garden offers boccie ball courts and holds about 25 guests.
Community Smith, the meat-centric concept from chef Micah Willex, opened in late January in the Renaissance Atlanta Midtown hotel. It seats 147 throughout the bar, restaurant, and sidewalk patio. Three private dining areas hold groups of 16, 18, and 32. Located in the former Briza space, the restaurant serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner and features a second-floor rooftop patio dubbed the Garden at Community Smith that holds 300 people.
Located inside the Forum Athletic Club in Buckhead, the indoor cycling studio Cyc Buckhead opened at the end of January and features 50 bikes in a 2,000-square-foot space. Buyouts are available for corporate teambuilding events.
The Fort Worth, Texas-based American Food and Beverage opened an Atlanta location in mid-January. Located in Buckhead, the upscale tavern features stool seating, a wraparound bar, and menu items such as duck potpie and chorizo Scotch eggs. The venue seats 185 guests. For private gatherings, the bar area holds 75 guests for receptions.
Chefs Eddie Russell and Matt Palmerlee, former co-hosts of Cooking Channel show Belly Up, opened Last Word Food & Cocktails in early October. The locally sourced menu varies by day and season. The layout features an L-shaped bar and clusters of seating, and design elements include white subway tiles, a concrete floor, and live oak tabletops from St. Simons Island. The 2,162-square-foot space seats about 60 including at a 12-seat redwood communal table.
The pan-Asian restaurant Bento Hut opened in the Pencil Factory Flats & Shops in October and serves sushi, fresh juice, smoothies, and Dutch-Indonesian-inspired dishes. The space, once home to Chow Bing, seats 70 or holds about 100 people for receptions.
