The timing could not be tighter. With the FIFA Fan Festival opening today and the USMNT kicking off its home World Cup against Paraguay on Friday, South Downtown is sprinting through the last openings of its years-long rebuild — and two of the most anticipated names on Broad Street are up next.
Glide Pizza is targeting an opening this Friday, June 12, and "some form" of Broad Street BBQ could be in business by the weekend of June 13–14, Atlanta Ventures partner Jon Birdsong said, per Urbanize Atlanta, which walked the district this week. Birdsong kept expectations honest: "I'd say best case, everyone's open Friday. Worst case, it'll bleed into the beginning of next week."
Slices by Friday, smoke by Sunday
For Glide Pizza, a Friday debut would mean serving its first South Downtown slices the same day the USMNT takes the field across downtown. Broad Street BBQ's timeline is looser — Birdsong told Urbanize that "some form" of the concept could fire up over the weekend — but the destination is set: the smokehouse anchors one end of Founders Green, the new half-acre greenspace carved out of a former parking lot, with El Tesoro's covered patio bookending the other. By Sunday, the district's new front yard could have tacos on one side and brisket on the other.
El Tesoro got the wave rolling with its Wednesday opening at Broad and Mitchell streets — the taqueria we covered when it joined the restaurant lineup and again when it announced a Mexican beach party for the World Cup. Brewhouse Café, the soccer pub building its second location in the district, is also targeting Friday — which would put Atlanta's most soccer-obsessed bar in business the day of the USMNT opener.
The bench that's already open
This week's newcomers join a roster that has been quietly assembling for months. KMM & Co., the handmade leather goods maker, threw its grand-opening party at 87 Peachtree St. in late May. Village Books, Crates record store, Spiller Park Coffee and Tyde Tate Kitchen are open along the district's storefronts, and Bottle Rocket is serving burgers and sushi on Hotel Row. On Saturdays, Smorgasburg Atlanta fills the neighborhood with food vendors from around the world — fitting programming for a World Cup summer.
Still in the pipeline
The leases keep coming behind this wave. Mule Train, a farm-fresh Southern concept, has signed on, along with Delilah's Everyday Soul and a breakfast-and-lunch spot from Todd Ginsberg and Josh Kim, per Urbanize. Overhead, the circa-1899 building at 85 Peachtree is being renovated into 26 loft apartments above street-level retail — one piece of the 58 historic structures across 16 acres that Atlanta Ventures is restoring, a transformation we've been tracking as the World Cup drew closer.
For now, the South Downtown scoreboard reads: tacos Wednesday, pizza and pints Friday, barbecue by the weekend — with the world arriving in between. We'll update listings as each door actually opens.
Source: Urbanize Atlanta (Josh Green, June 8, 2026).