Two doors down from Doc Chey's Noodle House sits a storefront that's been through more restaurants in the past ten years than most Morningside residents can name off the top of their head. Same property, same renovation dollars headed its way this year, two very different stories. One space at Morningside Village has held its ground for almost thirty years. The other has already lost two tenants and is now waiting on a third, arriving in 2027.
That contrast is the actual story here, more than any single headline about paint colors or a new chef. The village's owner is investing in permanence for most of the property while betting on reinvention at exactly one address. If you live in Morningside or Lenox Park, understanding which is which tells you more about how this stretch of North Highland actually works than any general description of "shops and restaurants" ever could.
The Address That Won't Sit Still
The space at 1397 North Highland Avenue has a history that doesn't match the rest of the block. It opened years ago as Morningside Kitchen, a casual American spot that built a loyal following before closing. The same footprint then became Nowak's, which later rebranded on the fly into Nowak's Cantina before that concept closed too. Two tenants, one address, a decade. Now it's waiting on a third.
That occupant has a name now. Chef Christopher Grossman, who runs the well-regarded Chastain in Chastain Park, announced this year that he's bringing a second concept called Alere to that exact spot in Morningside Village. The plan, as reported this year by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and What Now Atlanta, is a seasonal menu built around Southern European cooking and locally sourced ingredients, with an atmosphere the team has described as shedding the formality of classical fine dining while keeping Grossman's ingredient-driven approach intact. Grossman's team is working with Summerour Architects and Smith Hanes Design on the buildout. The opening target is 2027, not this year and not next spring.
That's two tenants in roughly a decade at one address, each with real ambition, each swapped out for the next, with a third now on the way. It's not a story about failure. It's a story about what kind of restaurant this particular storefront seems built to hold.
The Tenants Who Never Left
Compare that turnover to the businesses flanking it. Doc Chey's Noodle House has operated in Morningside Village for almost thirty years, long enough that the AJC's coverage of the current renovation specifically calls out its building as the one getting the most visible facelift. Whiskey Bird, known for its robata-grilled yakitori skewers and gyoza tacos, has become enough of a fixture that neighborhood guides mention it in the same breath as the village itself. Highland Fine Wine has been pouring European labels and hosting tasting classes next door to Alon's Bakery, which has built its own following on pastries and a small market section of cheese and wine. Highland Runners and Intown Animal Hospital round out a tenant mix that looks less like a rotating restaurant row and more like a set of neighborhood utilities people rely on weekly.
| Business | Approximate tenure at Morningside Village |
|---|---|
| Doc Chey's Noodle House | Nearly 30 years |
| Whiskey Bird | Established, long-running |
| Highland Fine Wine | Long-running, adjacent to Alon's |
| Alon's Bakery | Long-running neighborhood staple |
| 1397 N. Highland Ave (the pad site) | Two tenants in the past decade, a third arriving 2027 |
The pattern holds even at the far end of the property, where Kale Me Crazy has settled in as the go-to for acai bowls and juice without the churn that's defined its neighbor a few doors down.
A Facelift for Everyone Else
None of that stability is stopping the property's new owner from investing broadly. Atlanta firm 26th Street Partners now owns the roughly 50,000 square foot collection of buildings that straddles North Highland Avenue, and the company has told the AJC it plans new lighting, landscaping, paint, awnings, and artist murals across the property. The plan also calls for improved wayfinding and, in the company's words, "distinct crosswalks to clearly define the village as a cohesive district" rather than a loose row of separate storefronts.
That's a meaningful commitment for a property that's served the neighborhood for decades without a comprehensive update. It also means the renovation and the restaurant search are running on parallel tracks. The murals and landscaping are happening regardless of who eventually occupies 1397 North Highland. The building gets painted whether or not Alere is the concept that finally sticks.
What That Tells You About the Corner Spot
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you only skim headlines about a new restaurant opening. The businesses that have lasted decades in this village are the ones built around daily or weekly habit: a bowl of noodles on a Tuesday, a bottle of wine picked up on the way home, a bakery run before work. The address that keeps restarting is the one built around destination dining, the kind of concept that asks you to plan an evening rather than swing by on your way somewhere else.
That's not a knock on either concept that has tried the space so far. It's a reasonable read on what a single storefront on North Highland can support. Destination restaurants live and die on whether enough people decide, on a given Friday, to make this specific block the plan rather than an errand along the way. Morningside Kitchen and Nowak's Cantina both built real followings. Neither survived long enough to become the neighborhood's answer to Doc Chey's tenure. Whether Alere breaks that streak in 2027 will say something about the concept itself, but it will also say something about whether a fine casual Southern European menu can turn a corner spot into a habit the way a bowl of pho already has for the building next door.
What's on the Calendar Before the Paint Dries
None of this construction is pausing the neighborhood's usual fall rhythm. The Morningside Lenox Park Association's Monster Dash 5K returns for its fourth year on Saturday, October 24, a Halloween-themed run and walk through the neighborhood's streets that also includes a Kids Dash, with proceeds supporting MLPA's work.
The association's Morningside Wine Walk, presented in partnership with the Morningside Village business community, remains one of the neighborhood's signature annual events, turning the property into a strolling tasting route with live street art and proceeds benefiting a local animal rescue group. The neighborhood's Concerts in the Park series at Sidney Marcus Park, which runs during the warmer months, has already wrapped for this year, but it's worth marking on next year's calendar if you missed it this time around.
The Morningside Farmers Market keeps its usual Saturday morning schedule at the village, a fixture that predates almost everything else on this list. It launched in 1995 as Atlanta's first fully organic farmers market and has run every Saturday since, renovation or not.
That's the actual shape of the season here. A dining anchor about to welcome its third tenant in a decade. A property-wide facelift touching everyone from Doc Chey's to Intown Animal Hospital. And a calendar of neighborhood habits, from the Saturday market to the Halloween 5K, that keeps running underneath all of it.
If you've got questions about what any of this means for a specific street or property in Morningside or Lenox Park, The Katie McGuirk Team knows this neighborhood at the level of individual storefronts, not just zip codes. Contact us.
