At 2970 Peachtree Road, the patio facing the street belongs to a space Brio Tuscan Grille used to occupy. By late spring 2027 it is scheduled to become a shared patio for Linton's Bar and Grill and The Buttery. Both are run by James Beard award-winning chef Linton Hopkins and Hopkins & Company. The building hasn't moved and neither has the view of Peachtree. The changes are the menu, the ownership, and a separate entrance for a bakery-cafe that left the city's restaurant scene two years ago.
That pattern runs through most of Buckhead's restaurant news this year. Nearly every notable change involves an address residents already know. A space that held one concept now holds another, and the people deciding what goes in are often the building owners or a hospitality group that was already on the block. The new dining map is being drawn over the old one.
A chef with Buckhead history takes the Brio space
The Hopkins announcement is a return as much as an opening. Linton and Gina Hopkins opened Restaurant Eugene at The Brookwood on Peachtree Road in 2004 and added Holeman & Finch in the same complex four years later. Restaurant Eugene closed in 2019, and Holeman & Finch closed a year after that before reopening at Colony Square in Midtown in 2023. Hopkins was named Best Chef: Southeast by the James Beard Foundation in 2012. His group still runs H&F Bottle Shop in Buckhead.
The Buttery is coming back too. It closed in 2024 after four years in the Morningside-Lenox Park neighborhood. At Buckhead Center it will open in the morning with coffee, pastries, desserts, breads, croissant sandwiches and grab-and-go meals. Linton's is planned to cover the rest of the day. Hopkins describes it as a casual neighborhood place with sandwiches and salads at weekday lunch, martinis, calamari and tuna tartare on the patio after work, and steak dinners by reservation. CP Group puts the project at about 7,000 square feet. It will have private and semi-private dining, and the bakery is meant to serve office tenants, residents and visitors alike.
The building owner did the recruiting
Hopkins didn't pick this space on his own. Buckhead Center is a two-building office property: an 8-story tower and a 7-story tower totaling about 169,000 square feet on more than four acres. CP Group and investment firm Cohen & Steers bought it in 2022 and announced plans to renovate it and add amenities. In September 2026, CP Group reported that the south-tower lobby renovation was complete. Work on the motor court and the arrival area out front is expected to finish by year-end. Chris Eachus, a founding partner at CP Group, said Linton's and The Buttery fit the company's goal of making the office property feel more connected to the neighborhood.
That explains why a restaurant shows up in an office complex. For an office landlord, a well-known chef with a patio facing the street gives people a reason to stop at a building they might otherwise drive past. CP Group has used the same approach elsewhere in the city. It opened The CTR, an 11-stall food hall in the former CNN building downtown, and has three food-and-drink spots planned inside the Bank of America building in Midtown. Closer to home, CP Group's January plan for Piedmont Center calls for a public-facing dining and retail corridor with at least six eateries. So far that is an announced plan.
A small trend like this is easy to overstate. So far, Buckhead Center is the only office complex on the Peachtree corridor with a confirmed chef-driven restaurant on the way, and it doesn't open until 2027. A closer comparison is Koshu Club. The Japanese restaurant from Castellucci Hospitality Group opened in April at 99 West Paces Ferry Road, inside the 99 West Paces building across from the St. Regis, with Mujō chef Jordan Trent Harris leading the kitchen.
Same addresses, new names
The rest of this year's changes follow the same pattern of recycled spaces. Some came about because a local group reworked its own rooms, and others because a mall refilled a vacancy.
| Address | Previously | Now or next | Status as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2970 Peachtree Road, Buckhead Center | Brio Tuscan Grille | Linton's Bar and Grill and The Buttery | Targeting late spring 2027 |
| 3065 Peachtree Road, Buckhead Village | Storico Vino and Pachengo | Y Bar e Ristorante | Opened in July |
| 2285 Peachtree Road NE | n/a | High Noon Brunchery, relocated from Douglasville | Opened Aug. 4 |
| 1745 Peachtree Street NE, One Buckhead Plaza | Tuk Tuk Thai Food Loft | Vacant | Closed Aug. 2 |
| Phipps Plaza, 3500 Peachtree Road NE | Davio's | CVI.CHE 105 | Still listed as "coming soon" |
Y Bar e Ristorante is the clearest case of a local operator reworking its own space. It comes from Y Hospitality, the group behind Yeppa & Co., Storico Fresco and Forza Storico. The AJC identifies Stephen Peterson as the group's owner. Y Bar took over the former Storico Vino and Pachengo spaces, both earlier concepts from the same team. The menu includes Aunt Becky's artichoke dip, burro e alici, prosciutto e piadina, cacio e burro and a mini meatball sub, with cocktails inspired by Italian aperitivo and an Italian wine list. July coverage disagreed on which nights it stays open late, so check the current hours with the restaurant before you plan a late dinner.
High Noon Brunchery opened Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 2285 Peachtree Road NE after moving its flagship from Douglasville. At Phipps Plaza, Smooth N Groove arrived in September with smoothies, juices, wraps and salads. CVI.CHE 105 was reported in January as headed for the former Davio's Northern Italian Steakhouse space at Phipps, and an August roundup expected it in fall 2026. Simon's Phipps dining page still lists it as "coming soon," so it isn't open yet.
The same refilling is happening in retail. What Now Atlanta reported on Oct. 1 that Birkenstock is seeking a 1,891-square-foot standalone store near Macy's at Lenox Square. The project is in early stages, with no opening timeline.
One room that went dark
Not every space was handed off. Tuk Tuk Thai Food Loft opened in One Buckhead Plaza in January 2010 under executive chef and owner DeeDee Niyomkul, a second-generation Atlanta restaurateur. Before Tuk Tuk, she trained under French master chef Xavier Salomon in San Francisco and became executive chef at Nan Thai Fine Dining in 2006. The restaurant was known for Thai street food served as tapas-style small plates. It closed for good on Sunday, Aug. 2, and announced the closing through a voicemail on its phone line:
"On behalf of Tuk Tuk Thai Food Loft restaurant we want thank you for all your support for all these years. Tuk Tuk Thai Food Loft will be closed for good."
No reason for the closing was announced. The Peachtree Street space joins the list of known rooms waiting for their next tenant. Based on this year's record, that tenant will probably come from a hospitality group or a building owner who already has a stake nearby.
What fills the fall while the big openings wait
The headline opening is still months away and CVI.CHE 105 has no date, so for the rest of 2026 the dependable plans in Buckhead run through institutions that have held the same addresses for years. The calendar from mid-October to Veterans Day uses the same familiar settings as the dining news.
- Sunday, Oct. 18, 1 to 4 p.m. Buckhead Village District hosts a book signing with Richard Christiansen of Flamingo Estate at Bella Cucina.
- Tuesday, Oct. 20, 7 p.m. Kerry Kennedy is in conversation with Pat Mitchell at McElreath Hall, Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road. Nonmember tickets are listed at $43.50 and include a signed book.
- Wednesday, Oct. 28, 4 to 8 p.m. Boo Bash 2026 takes over the Food Hall at Phipps and The Green at Phipps Plaza with an outdoor screening of Coco, a DJ, yard games and family activities. The listing doesn't give an admission price.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 5 to 7 p.m. Buckhead Rotary and the Chastain Park Conservancy host Chastain Glow, a Halloween event for Horizons Atlanta scholars with treats for the scholars and neighborhood kids.
- Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7 and 8. The 17th annual Chastain Park Fall Arts Festival fills Park Drive with about 175 artists and artisans, plus food trucks, a children's area and local acoustic musicians. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and admission is free.
- Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m. Atlanta History Center holds its free Veterans Day commemoration in Veterans Park, with Nicholas Reynolds as keynote speaker.
The arts festival is the one to plan a weekend around. The Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces organizes it with volunteer artists, and proceeds go to a scholarship fund for local artists. Its spring edition is already set for May 8 and 9, 2027. That's within weeks of the late-spring target for Linton's and The Buttery, which means the spring after this one could see both a return to Chastain and Hopkins's return to Peachtree Road.
Following which Buckhead addresses change hands, and who is choosing the next tenants, is part of knowing these blocks well. If the changes at Buckhead Center or elsewhere along Peachtree affect how you think about your own corner of the neighborhood, the Barnes Young Team would be glad to talk it through with you. Schedule a consultation to discuss your next move.
