Buckhead Life Restaurant Group is bringing Chops Lobster Bar downtown. The longtime Atlanta steakhouse will open a second location later this year inside Centennial Yards at 85 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW — a 13,000-square-foot outpost that will run the same surf-and-turf playbook Chops has been famous for in Buckhead since 1989.
The new dining room will be designed by Pat Kuleto, the restaurateur-architect behind the iconic Buckhead Diner. Expect the same warm-wood, dark-leather aesthetic that defines the original room — and a menu that splits its time between fresh seafood flown in daily and USDA Prime aged beef.
"Chops is more than a restaurant — it's an Atlanta institution," Brian McGowan, president of Centennial Yards, said in a prepared statement, calling out the celebrations and once-in-a-lifetime moments the original room has hosted. McGowan credited owners Pano and Niko Karatassos for what they'll add to the entertainment district Centennial Yards is building between the Gulch and Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The downtown Chops joins a fast-growing roster of Centennial Yards F&B announcements — Varuni Napoli, Cosm, Shake Shack, Irish Exit — as the district angles to make itself the gravity well for World Cup, Falcons, Hawks, and Dream foot traffic alike.
Original reporting: Olivia Wakim for the AJC
