What's Changing at Morningside Village, From a Planned Face-Lift to the Chastain Team's Next Restaurant

In about ten years, the restaurant space at 1397 North Highland Avenue NE has had three names. In the same center, Doc Chey's Noodle House has had one name since 1997. Both sit in Morningside Village, and the next year of changes there looks aimed at the gap between those two records.

The owner of the center, 26th Street Partners, has announced a face-lift built around one idea. It wants the buildings on both sides of North Highland to read as a single place. The team behind The Chastain is moving into 1397, with plans announced a week before the face-lift this summer.

A center split by the street it sits on

Morningside Village is about 50,000 square feet of buildings on both sides of North Highland Avenue, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Its tenants include Whiskey Bird, The Family Dog, Doc Chey's Noodle House, Highland Fine Wine, Highland Runners and Intown Animal Hospital. One owner holds all of it. Even so, a dinner reservation, a running-shoe fitting and a vet appointment each feel like separate errands at separate addresses, because the street runs through the middle.

The AJC reported that the planned upgrades include:

• New lighting
• Landscaping
• Fresh paint and new awnings
• Artist murals
• Improved wayfinding
• "Distinct crosswalks to clearly define the village as a cohesive district"

Paint and awnings tidy up a building. Crosswalks and wayfinding tie buildings together. The plan treats the street as the place where the village gets joined into one.

Gentle Works, an Atlanta architecture and design studio, is designing the project. "We want to make it more of a locally identifiable place," founder Anthony Fidilio said, as reported by Business of Atlanta. "The improvements will help give a sense of place to the village." The same outlet reports that the design also calls for new signage, plantings and color schemes that unify the buildings' look.

The patios are where the plan reaches the table

Most of the planned work changes how the center looks. One part changes where you sit. Business of Atlanta reports that the plan includes refreshed patios for Whiskey Bird and The Family Dog, with work on both front and back patios.

The owner was direct about who it hopes the work will draw. "We want to give people more reasons to visit our restaurants and shops, and the upgrades will help create an entire energetic district, particularly on evenings and weekends," the property owner said, per Business of Atlanta. Evenings and weekends are when a patio does its work. That puts the patio upgrades at the center of the plan.

A statement the firm gave the AJC, as quoted by Business of Atlanta, places the village inside its larger holdings in the area. It called authentic centers like Morningside Village "necessary for the food and retail ecosystem to keep existing and increase foot traffic to our other properties." The owner sees a busier Morningside Village helping the rest of the corridor too.

The space that keeps turning over

The AJC reported that over the previous decade the space was home to Morningside Kitchen and to Nowak's, which later became Nowak's Cantina.

Doc Chey's, by contrast, has been a tenant at Morningside Village since 1997. The 1397 space has needed a new identity every few years. A plan built around a "locally identifiable place" depends on that space holding a tenant longer.

Who is moving into 1397

Alere is the second restaurant from chef Christopher Grossman and the team behind The Chastain. The AJC reported in June that the new restaurant would shed "the constraints of classical fine dining" while keeping Grossman's "ingredient-driven philosophy," quoting the announcement.

Grossman trained under Thomas Keller at The French Laundry in Napa Valley. He was executive chef at Atlas inside the St. Regis Atlanta and spent several years as chef de cuisine at Aria. In 2020 he opened The Chastain in the former Horseradish Grill space next to Chastain Park, and it earned a Michelin Green Star in 2023 for seasonal, garden-driven cooking.

The plans published so far for Alere include:

1. Cuisine: a seasonal menu drawing from Southern European cooking, built on locally sourced ingredients and classical technique.
2. Feel: described as a more casual, neighborhood-focused version of The Chastain's approach.
3. Design: Summerour Architects and Smith Hanes Design are working on the space.
4. Timing: slated to open in 2027.

The neighbors are watching closely. Whiskey Bird, at 1409 North Highland, posted an explainer about the restaurant next door. It noted that its own Pacific Rim menu and Alere's Southern European approach will give guests "two distinct reasons to visit the block." That is the district idea from the restaurant side. A second destination on the block makes the patios, crosswalks and murals easier to justify.

What the next few months look like

The work is designed to arrive in pieces. Business of Atlanta reports that the village project will be phased, with the first improvements expected to be visible by late fall 2026 and more work continuing into 2027. Alere is on the same timeline and is expected to open in 2027.

For someone who walks to Highland Fine Wine on a Friday or takes a dog to Intown Animal Hospital, the next stretch should bring changes a little at a time: new paint or awnings on one building, new lighting, then crosswalk markings across North Highland. The planned murals by artists are the most visible part of the plan. The patio work at Whiskey Bird and The Family Dog will matter most to anyone who eats outside once the weather turns.

Doc Chey's representatives also mentioned their own plans in the coverage. "For Doc Chey's, we want to create a retail space that will help the guest experience," a representative said, according to Business of Atlanta. After nearly 30 years in the village, Doc Chey's is planning around the same goal as the restaurant arriving at 1397.

A walk through the older story, Nov. 14

The village is getting a new look in a neighborhood with a long memory. The Morningside Lenox Park Association has a History of Morningside walking tour on its calendar for Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, from 10 to 11:30 a.m., starting at 1411 N. Morningside Dr. It's an easy morning to pair with a walk down North Highland afterward to see which parts of the face-lift have arrived.

As the work on North Highland moves into 2027, Michael Kriethe is glad to talk through how a changing neighborhood center like Morningside Village fits into your own plans for the area. Let's Connect.