Two developers, working five blocks apart on opposite sides of the Connector, are adding a steakhouse to each of their Midtown projects on different timelines. One is inside a converted funeral home. The other is beneath a mural on the corner of West Peachtree and 17th. Neither concept is new to Atlanta, but together the projects put two new dinner destinations on Midtown's near-term map.
The Block Behind the Old Funeral Home
Spring Quarter, the Portman Holdings development that occupies a full city block on Spring Street, has spent the past year filling in around its two towers: the 525,000-square-foot Ten Twenty Spring office building and Sora, a 370-unit residential tower with a pool, an infrared sauna, and a climbing wall for residents who want more from an amenity floor than a treadmill. By August 2026, five restaurants were open on the property. Celestia, a rooftop cocktail lounge on the eighth floor of Ten Twenty Spring, opened first, alongside ISHIN by Ito, a 16-seat omakase counter tucked next to it with skyline views. Habaneros, a Pan-Mexican concept with birria tacos and a weekend brunch menu, followed on the ground floor of Sora. Pataaka, a tapas-style Indian restaurant from chef Anish Nair with room for 113 guests, opened at the end of August. And Sozou, chef Fuyuhiko Ito's flagship, rounded out the group on the ground floor of Ten Twenty Spring with a sushi bar and a robata grill running on binchotan charcoal. It keeps a dress code of smart elegant, no athletic wear, and seats guests Tuesday through Saturday starting at 5:30 p.m.
| Restaurant | Type | Location on the property |
|---|---|---|
| Celestia | Rooftop cocktail lounge | 8th floor, Ten Twenty Spring |
| ISHIN by Ito | 16-seat omakase | 8th floor, Ten Twenty Spring |
| Habaneros | Pan-Mexican, weekend brunch | Ground floor, Sora |
| Pataaka | Indian, tapas-style | Ground floor, Sora |
| Sozou | Japanese, sushi and robata | Ground floor, Ten Twenty Spring |
The sixth piece is the one with the longest backstory. At the heart of the block sits the H.M. Patterson & Son-Spring Hill Chapel, a century-old mortuary the City of Atlanta declared a historic landmark in 2018. Portman preserved the building rather than replacing it, and the 24,000-square-foot space is set to become Hal's "The Steakhouse," a Buckhead institution making its way into Midtown. It's expected to open next year, which means the last empty storefront on the block is being filled by the most traditional concept of the bunch.
Five Blocks North, a Different Kind of Anchor
Head north past the Connector to Midtown Union, the three-pronged development along Arts Center Way, and the pattern looks familiar but the sequence runs in reverse. Instead of building a dining block from scratch and topping it off with a steakhouse, Midtown Union has spent recent years adding smaller daytime tenants, including White Windmill Bakery and Café, before now landing its marquee dinner destination. Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar has been announced as an anchor retail tenant by developers MetLife Investment Management and Granite Properties, and it's set to open this fall in a sizable, 8,233-square-foot space at the high-profile corner of West Peachtree and 17th streets, beneath a tower mural by SCAD alum JoeKingATL.
Fleming's plans to serve lunch and dinner starting at 11 a.m. daily, with steak options under $35 included on the menu, which positions it closer to an everyday destination than an occasion-only splurge. Parking is valet or at the district's North Deck garage, a detail worth knowing if you're planning to walk over from an evening at the Woodruff Arts Center rather than drive.
The Shared Steakhouse Pattern
The overlap is the interesting part. Spring Quarter and Midtown Union aren't competing for the same diners on the same night so much as they share a visible feature: each has a steakhouse in its dining lineup. That shared feature is the clearest point of overlap. Steak travels across demographics in a way a 16-seat omakase counter or a tapas-style Indian menu doesn't, and it gives office tenants a place to close a deal at dinner as easily as an apartment resident finds a place to celebrate.
Portman's Chief Development Officer Travis Garland described the earlier Spring Quarter openings as part of a broader signal, calling the momentum a "strong testament to the long-term appeal of activated mixed-use districts," as reported by Citybiz. That quote speaks to the broader appeal of activated mixed-use districts, without specifying a reason for either steakhouse. The two steakhouses sit within separate projects, but they share a role as anchors for their respective dining blocks.
For a resident, this means the choice of where to end an evening increasingly comes down to which side of the Connector you're closer to and which kind of steakhouse experience you want: dress-code formal inside a converted historic chapel, or an everyday, under-$35 dinner beneath a mural on 17th Street.
What's Left on the Park Calendar
Piedmont Park's fall lineup runs on its own separate calendar, and worth checking before you plan a weekend around either restaurant row.
- Shaky Knees Music Festival ran September 18 through 20, with the main stages set up inside the park.
- The Atlanta Pride Festival returns to Piedmont Park October 10 and 11, with the parade, marketplace, and main stage programming that draws crowds from across the city.
- The Conservancy's Walking Club keeps its regular Tuesday slot at 10 a.m., with sessions scheduled through early October.
- The Green Market continues its Saturday run, giving Midtown residents a weekly reason to walk over even on weekends without a festival on the calendar.
None of this requires advance planning the way a festival weekend does, but it's useful context for anyone deciding whether to grab a table at Habaneros before a Pride Saturday gets busy, or to time a Tuesday walk before heading to dinner at Fleming's a few blocks over.
What This Actually Means If You Live Here
Midtown isn't getting just one new hot restaurant in the near term. It's getting two versions of what a finished dining block looks like, each with a steakhouse as an anchor. Spring Quarter's version is contained, high-design, and anchored by a historic building. Midtown Union's version is spread along a public-facing corridor and priced for a Tuesday dinner rather than an occasion. Which one becomes your regular spot probably depends less on the food and more on which block already sits on your daily route.
Either way, the pattern is worth knowing before both are fully open, because it explains why Midtown's evening foot traffic over the next year is likely to concentrate on two specific blocks rather than spreading evenly across the neighborhood the way it has in past years.
If you're weighing what a specific Midtown block or building is actually like to live near, from noise and foot traffic to which restaurant row you'd end up walking to most nights, that's the kind of on-the-ground read Stephen Beckwith puts together for buyers looking at this neighborhood. Let's Connect.