Two of the development projects that have reshaped the northern edge of Atlanta's core have signed the restaurant tenants that will define their street level. Portman has leased the main floor of the historic Patterson House at its Spring Quarter district on Spring Street to Hal's "The Steakhouse," the Buckhead institution, and at New City Properties' Fourth Ward Project along the Beltline's Eastside Trail, a Parisian-style restaurant called Sargent is opening at the base of the office building that houses Mailchimp's headquarters.
The Patterson House at 1020 Spring Street is a 24,000-square-foot building designed by architect Philip T. Shutze and completed in 1928, long known as the H.M. Patterson & Son funeral home. It sits amid renovated gardens surrounded by Spring Quarter's Sora apartment high-rise and the Ten Twenty Spring office tower. Portman initially announced the opening for early 2028, which would have coincided with the building's centennial, then said a day later that Hal's had moved the target up to spring 2027. The redesign is being handled by Walix Corporation and Maison Malueé principal designer María Domínguez, with the stated intent of keeping the building's historic character alongside the work Portman has already completed there.
Hal's owner Sammy Jimenez is also putting a global fine art gallery on the Patterson's second floor, curated by Alex Soto and Andres Rodriguez. Portman says the gallery will be open during the day and stay open through dinner service, doubling as a private event space and a cocktail-hour destination with hors d'oeuvres and drinks. The Midtown restaurant will be Hal's third location after the Buckhead original and a Nashville outpost, with a fourth planned for Roswell in mid-2028. A European-inspired café concept is part of the plan for the Patterson as well.
The lease closes out a search that ran for years. In 2023, Portman announced that Charleston-based The Indigo Road Hospitality Group would turn the entire building into a morning-to-night food and beverage destination; that deal never materialized. Dotan Zuckerman, Portman's head of retail development, said the company stayed disciplined in waiting for the right fit and called Hal's an Atlanta institution and a gift to Midtown. Jimenez said opening a second Atlanta restaurant was a significant decision and that the Patterson felt like the right home for the next chapter. Portman also expects to open two more restaurants at Spring Quarter this summer: Sozou, a contemporary Japanese concept from Atlanta chef Fuyuhiko Ito, and Pataaka, a high-end Indian restaurant.
Sargent, meanwhile, was set to open Aug. 18 in a space tucked off the Eastside Trail along North Angier Avenue, next to the walk-up window for ice cream shop Big Softie and across the street from The Forth Hotel. It comes from Jordan Smelt and Katie Barringer, the team behind Buckhead's Lucian Books & Wine. The name and concept take their cue from Gilded Age painter John Singer Sargent, and Barringer has described the food as American classics with a little French brasserie on top. The opening continues the retail buildout at Fourth Ward Project, whose three-building first phase anchors the trail at the edge of Historic Fourth Ward Park.
Original reporting: Urbanize Atlanta (2026-08-11)
