Three Dunwoody Blocks, Three Different Evenings: Where the Village, Park Place and The Shops Are Heading This Summer

For years, the shorthand for eating out in Dunwoody was to name a single restaurant. In the summer of 2026, the shorthand has changed. You pick a block first, then a room. Dunwoody Village, Park Place on Ashford Dunwoody, and The Shops of Dunwoody up Chamblee Dunwoody Road are each pulling in a different kind of night out, and the leases and openings signed since January have made those distinctions sharper than they have been in a decade.

If you already live here, the useful question is no longer "what's new in Dunwoody." It's which block matches the evening you're planning.

The Village: a dining collection under one operator

The most concentrated change is inside Dunwoody Village, where DASH Hospitality Group founder David Abes now runs five concepts within walking distance of each other. His newest, {S}table Comfort Food {n} Cocktails, opened April 9 at 1317 Dunwoody Village Pkwy with a menu built around barbecue pulled pork dumplings, Carolina crab dip, buttermilk fried chicken and Georgia mountain trout "pecandine," open Tuesday through Sunday from 4 to 10 p.m. The space is the same one that housed Steak & Grace, which closed abruptly on January 22 after about ten months in business before owner Barry Mills of Big B's Fish Joint sold to a new operator.

The name is deliberate. The names {S}table and Bar{n} pay homage to Dunwoody's agrarian roots and Abes' childhood riding horses at nearby Banister Farm. Abes has been direct about the reference points, telling Rough Draft Atlanta that people should think of {S}table as a tribute to the former Chastain Park restaurant Horseradish Grill, where he was general manager in the 1990s, and that the new place will be similarly casual but refined.

The rest of his Village collection now includes Bar{n} Booze and Bites, Morty's Meat Supply, Message In a Bottle, and Good Vibes Ice Cream. Morty's is the one to watch this summer. A dueling piano bar opened March 6, 2026, bringing sing-along performances that turn dinner into an interactive night out, with Morty's expanding its building to create the Smokehouse Stage where Atlanta Dueling Pianos performs. Founded by Francisco Vidal in partnership with Atlanta Music Agency's Joshua Gray Hamilton, the experience is reservation-driven, with guests able to sing and dance along.

What that means practically: the Village is now the block where the whole evening can happen in one parking lot. Dinner at {S}table, dessert two doors down at Good Vibes, and a piano set at Morty's without moving the car. Abes has been open about the strategy. He said he has been offered spaces in Buckhead and Midtown, but Dunwoody is home, and he wants all of his restaurants to be gathering spots for the community.

Park Place: the quieter, older room grows up

A mile east on Ashford Dunwoody Road, Park Place is playing a different game. The complex sits inside what's now marketed as the Perimeter Center Entertainment District, alongside Perimeter Mall, Ashford Lane, and High Street. Its newest tenant is a slower affair.

Le Faucheur Tearoom opened April 3 at the Park Place complex on Ashford Dunwoody Road, offering European-inspired tea service from founder Valerie Fatemi, who built on the success of mobile tea company The Cheeky TeaCup. The service model is committed. Le Faucheur sits at 4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road and runs Tuesday through Sunday with multiple daily tea seatings at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m., reservations required.

That new tenant lands in an established roster. Park Place underwent renovations two years ago in an attempt to court new tenants to the aging shopping complex, one update being the creation of a central green space with a courtyard, and it is home to Cafe Intermezzo, Eclipse di Luna, McKendrick's Steakhouse, Simply South Pure Indian Vegetarian, and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.

Read the tenant mix together and the identity comes into focus. Park Place is the block for a longer meal at a table with a white cloth, a birthday tea, a slow scoop of Van Leeuwen after. It is not competing with the Village for the piano-bar crowd, and it is not trying to.

The Shops of Dunwoody: the wellness-plus-quick-bite play

Two miles north of Perimeter Mall, the third block is remaking itself in a third direction. Since acquiring The Shops of Dunwoody in March 2025, Asana Partners has refreshed branding and added new signage. The recent leases show where the ownership is steering.

Two new fitness studios and two more dining options are set to open at The Shops of Dunwoody: Beyond Juicery + Eatery, a fast-casual concept with fresh juices, smoothies, salads and wraps; Jetset Pilates, a reformer-based studio focused on high-intensity, low-impact workouts; Tenku Sushi, a contemporary restaurant offering traditional and modern Japanese-inspired cuisine; and Sweat440, a group fitness studio specializing in 40-minute high-intensity interval training classes, all expected to open through summer and fall of 2026. The leasing is being led by JLL Vice President Allie Spangler with 10Twelve on behalf of owner Asana Partners.

The mix is not accidental. A juice bar next to a Pilates studio next to a sushi counter is a specific bet on the pre-workout, post-workout, and Saturday-lunch pattern of the surrounding streets. The Shops of Dunwoody is about 2 miles north of Perimeter Mall on Chamblee Dunwoody Road in the heart of Dunwoody Village, and its location near residential neighborhoods plus its accessibility to office users in Central Perimeter make it a true neighborhood destination.

A quick way to pick the block

The rest of the map, worth knowing

A few openings sit outside the three clusters and are worth keeping straight if you host out-of-town family this summer.

• Stäge Kitchen & Bar at Campus 244 is billed by Discover Dunwoody as a chef-driven restaurant with elevated seafood, steak, pasta, and globally inspired cuisine paired with craft cocktails in a modern, upscale dining atmosphere.
• Kruathai at 237 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE, Suite H31, brings traditional Thai recipes, hand-crafted curries, and charcoal-grilled specialties into Perimeter Center.
• Foxtail Coffee is on the Discover Dunwoody list as an ethically sourced, freshly roasted coffee concept.
• The Bunkr Golf Co. at 4531 Olde Perimeter Way, Suite 110, is an indoor golf simulator with private bays and a social-club atmosphere for year-round play.

Together they widen the map, but they do not blur the three-block logic. If you want music and a full dinner, the Village. If you want a long lunch or a formal dinner, Park Place. If you want a workout and a bowl, The Shops.

The through-line

The pattern that ties the three clusters is that each has an operator with a specific point of view: Abes in the Village, an ownership group in Asana Partners at The Shops, and a slow, service-heavy tea concept next to a steakhouse at Park Place. That is a different market than the one Dunwoody had five years ago, when a single restaurant carried a name and everything around it was neutral. Summer 2026 rewards residents who plan by block.

When your next move involves the house, not the reservation

Watching a neighborhood you have lived in for years grow into a set of distinct districts is one of the quiet pleasures of staying put. When the time comes for a bigger move within Dunwoody or across the northern arc into Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Brookhaven, Roswell or Alpharetta, the same eye for what makes a block work is what shapes a good sale or a good purchase. That is the work of the Lindsay Levin Team. If you would like a clear read on what your home is worth in today's market, request a Free Home Valuation and we will build the numbers around your specific street, not a citywide average.