It’s shaping up to be a summer of bountiful debuts for Avondale Estates’ expanding and densifying downtown district.

Five new food-and-beverage concepts are in the pipeline with plans to open soon at the park-side The Dale project and nearby blocks, joining a slate of recent openings along the city's main street, according to an update this week from Dave Deiters, chair of the Avondale Estates Downtown Development Authority. 

Recent openings include restaurant Last Dance from veterans of the General Muir, which has claimed the former Rising Son space in Avondale’s Tudor Village at 124 N. Avondale Road. Its soft opening was held Saturday. 

According to Deiters, a new nail salon, Sugar Polish Nail Bar, has opened a second-floor space at The Dale along North Avondale Road, too.  

Directly below that, another recent addition to The Dale is The Book Bird, a bookstore, coffee shop, and wine-bar mashup that continues an ITP trend of local book purveyor openings. 

Parkside retail facades and seating. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Stairs leading from The Dale to Town Green playscapes. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

Three more new restaurants at The Dale—Ophelia Tavern (pizza, pasta, burgers), Green Coyote (Tex-Mex), and Bar Top (a rooftop bar overlooking Avondale’s Town Green)—are in the final stages of buildout, though ETAs haven’t been nailed down as DeKalb County conducts its inspections and approvals, per Deiters.  

“These restaurants were delayed by late delivery of some kitchen equipment, and so the permitting process was then also delayed,” Deiters noted. “They are working through routine inspection and permitting issues now, and will hopefully be welcoming the hungry and thirsty public very soon.”

Elsewhere in the new mixed-use complex, Cremalosa Gelato opened last year as The Dale’s first active business.

Meanwhile, just west of The Dale along Avondale’s new multimodal Complete Street, two more food-and-beverage options are in the offing. 

The team behind Ford’s BBQ in Tucker and Oakhurst is bringing a concept called Ford’s Chicken focused on “charcoal rotisserie magic” to the former Taylor’d Bar-B-Q space at 2759 E College Ave. According to Deiters, Ford’s Chicken is trying to lease excess space in the building to another business but plans to open soon. 

Last but not least, the adaptive-reuse Galore Market project is in final permitting stages and awaiting an alcohol permit from the State of Georgia but “should be open very soon,” per Deiters. 

The market concept's planned frontage along East College Avenue on the westernmost block in Avondale Estates. Galore Market; courtesy of Bull Realty

The building's Arcadia Avenue facade now sports a mural by Arrrtaddict. Josh Green/Urbanize Atlanta

That concept, from the team behind O4W Market on Decatur Street in Old Fourth Ward, has transformed a former tire shop at 2711 E. College Ave., near MARTA’s Avondale station and the popular PATH Foundation trail at the city’s western edge. 

On a less upbeat note, Avondale food hall concept Olive + Pine will be losing celebrated sandwich shop Leftie Lee's in coming days. "Thank you for absolutely everything," business leaders wrote on social media. "This isn’t goodbye forever, just the end of this chapter."

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• Avondale Estates news, discussion (Urbanize Atlanta)