Something shifted in Dunwoody between January and April. A steakhouse closed, a tearoom opened, a barbecue restaurant knocked out a wall for a piano stage, and four new tenants signed leases two miles up the road. Taken one at a time, each is a small story. Put them on a map, and the picture is clearer: the Village has become a compact, operator-driven food and entertainment district, and the Perimeter side is filling in around wellness, tea, and coffee. For anyone who already lives here, that means a Saturday can now start with a farmers market, cover a concert, land at dinner, and end with dueling pianos inside a half-mile radius.
Here is where to spend the season, sorted by the corner of town that changed most.
Dunwoody Village: One Operator, Four Front Doors
The single biggest reason the Village feels denser this year is that David Abes' DASH Hospitality Group now runs a collection of restaurants at what he dubbed "Funwoody" Village, including Bar{n} Booze and Bites, Morty's Meat Supply, and Message In a Bottle. The newest addition sits in a space that was, until January, a steakhouse.
{S}table Comfort Food {n} Cocktails opened April 9 at Dunwoody Village, replacing Steak & Grace which closed in January after less than a year in business. Expect dishes like barbecue pulled pork dumplings, Carolina crab dip, buttermilk fried chicken, and Georgia mountain trout "pecandine" paired with Southern-leaning cocktails. The menu leans further into place than the name suggests. Starters include the Southern Lazy Susan, a cheese and charcuterie board with Georgia gouda, pimento cheese, smoked duck, and country ham, and barbecue pulled pork dumplings come served with chow chow and garlic chili crisp. Address and hours: 1317 Dunwoody Village Pkwy, open Tuesday through Sunday, 4 to 10 p.m.
Two doors down, the same operator turned Morty's into a nighttime destination. A dueling piano bar opened on March 6, 2026, bringing high-energy, sing-along performances that turn dinner into an interactive night out. To accommodate the new programming, Morty's expanded its building to create the Smokehouse Stage. The programming is deliberate rather than accidental: the performances are delivered by the Atlanta Dueling Pianos, founded by Francisco Vidal in partnership with Atlanta Music Agency's Joshua Gray Hamilton, and the experience is reservation-driven, with guests able to sing and dance along.
Why this matters for a resident: three of the four restaurants you're most likely to walk into on any given Friday are now run by the same person, which is why the calendar reads coherent instead of piecemeal.
The Courtyard Between Them
The connective tissue is outdoor and free.
Live music runs Fridays and Saturdays every week, 6 to 9 p.m., at the Funwoody Courtyard at 5521 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd. Pair that with the Brook Run Park Amphitheater series, which has a fuller lineup than most residents realize:
| Date | Act |
|---|---|
| June 13 | NeroSimon & Band X |
| July 2 | Callanwolde Band, America 250 Celebration |
| August 8 | Herd Behavior / M80s, Back to School Celebration |
| September 12 | Piano Man vs Rocket Man Tribute |
| October 10 | Slippery When Wet, Bon Jovi Tribute |
That 2026 lineup runs June through October at Brook Run Park Amphitheater, which means the outdoor season effectively extends into the first cool weekend of fall. If you want the daytime version, the DHA Farmers Market at Brook Run Park and the Shops of Dunwoody Farmers Market are two of the area's most popular weekly markets, offering fresh produce, local goods, handmade products, flowers, and prepared foods.
Park Place and the Perimeter Side: Tea, Steak, Thai
Head east toward Ashford Dunwoody Road and the mix looks different. Park Place, the older complex that spent a couple of years being rehabbed, added its most distinctive tenant in April.
Le Faucheur Tearoom opened April 3 at the Park Place complex on Ashford Dunwoody Road. Offering European-inspired tea service, founder Valerie Fatemi built upon the success of mobile tea company The Cheeky TeaCup. The context around it explains why Park Place feels less tired than it used to: now part of the Perimeter Center Entertainment District, which includes Perimeter Mall, Ashford Lane, and High Street, Park Place underwent updating and renovations two years ago in an attempt to court new tenants to the aging shopping complex. One update includes the creation of a central green space with a courtyard. Park Place is also home to Cafe Intermezzo, Eclipse di Luna, McKendrick's Steakhouse, Simply South Pure Indian Vegetarian, and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.
Reservations at Le Faucheur are not walk-in friendly. The address is 4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road, open Tuesday through Sunday with multiple daily tea service seatings at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Reservations required.
A little further into Perimeter Center, two more concepts are worth putting on your list before they get busy. Stäge Kitchen & Bar is a chef-driven restaurant offering elevated seafood, steak, pasta, and globally inspired cuisine paired with craft cocktails in a modern, upscale dining atmosphere at Campus 244. And for Thai, Kruathai is bringing traditional recipes, hand-crafted curries, charcoal-grilled specialties, and elevated craft cocktails to 237 Perimeter Center Pkwy NE, Suite H31.
The Shops of Dunwoody: Four Leases Signed in July
The most concrete signal that this expansion is not a one-quarter blip came three weeks ago.
Two new fitness studios and two more dining options are on tap to open in The Shops of Dunwoody after the four businesses inked lease agreements this month. The new tenants are Beyond Juicery + Eatery, a fast-casual concept offering fresh juices, smoothies, salads and wraps; Jetset Pilates, a reformer-based Pilates studio focused on high-intensity, low-impact workouts; Tenku Sushi, a contemporary sushi restaurant offering traditional and modern Japanese-inspired cuisine; and Sweat440, a group fitness studio specializing in 40-minute, high-intensity interval training classes. The tenants are expected to open through the summer and fall of 2026.
The reason to care about the ownership behind these leases: since acquiring The Shops of Dunwoody in March 2025, Asana Partners has refreshed branding and added new signage. 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." Translation for residents: the center closest to your house is being curated deliberately, not filled reactively.
What to Do With the Kids Before School Starts
Summer programming here is denser than a typical suburban calendar. A few dates worth writing down:
- Fourth of July on Jett Ferry Road. This annual parade fills Jett Ferry road to Dunwoody Village with colorful floats, marching bands, local organizations, and patriotic spirit, followed by live entertainment, food vendors, family activities, and a lively community celebration throughout the village.
- The Splash Pad reopening. The Two Bridges Park Splash Pad summer season begins with a community celebration.
- Movies at Pernoshal Park. Monthly movies at Pernoshal Park run through the summer calendar.
- Storefront art all season. From May 1 through August 31, the Storefront Art Exhibit showcases artwork by Dunwoody High School students in windows of local businesses. Businesses select artworks that capture the spirit of Dunwoody, and Create Dunwoody promotes the temporary exhibit and creates a Storefront Art Tour Map. Bring the kids on a Saturday morning walk and turn it into a scavenger hunt.
- Back-to-School concert. August 8 doubles as the Back to School Celebration at Brook Run Park with Herd Behavior and M80s.
The Piece Most Residents Miss: A Second Location Is Coming to Perimeter Mall
One more update belongs on the radar because it lands in 2027 rather than this summer, and residents who blink will miss the announcement. Saints + Council will expand from Midtown to Dunwoody with a second location in 2027, a New American restaurant set to open a 7,800-square-foot space at Perimeter Mall. That is a Midtown operator choosing Perimeter over Buckhead. Combined with the DASH build-out at the Village and Asana's curation at the Shops, the pattern is consistent: operators who could go anywhere in metro Atlanta are placing bets on this ZIP code.
A Weekend Blueprint
Here is a specific version of the argument, in itinerary form.
Saturday. Start at the DHA Farmers Market at Brook Run Park from 9 a.m. to noon. Walk the Storefront Art Tour through the Village. Lunch at Bar{n} Booze and Bites. Late afternoon: Groovin' on the Green at the Brook Run Amphitheater. Dinner at {S}table. Cap the night with a dueling piano set at Morty's Smokehouse Stage.
Sunday. Tea seating at Le Faucheur at 11:30 a.m. or 1:30 p.m. Stroll Park Place's central green. If you have out-of-town guests, this is now the pitch: two shopping centers, four operators worth knowing by name, one concert amphitheater, and a farmers market, all inside twelve minutes of driving.
Two years ago you would have called that a stretch. This summer, it's a Saturday.
If you're a homeowner in Dunwoody who's watched all of this change from the sidewalk and started to wonder what it's doing to values on your street, that is a conversation the team at Amy Pedersen has every week. When you're ready to talk about what your home is worth in a market that keeps adding demand drivers, schedule your free consultation.
