Walk past 45 West Park Square this month and you will find the storefront that used to be Piastra sitting quiet again. As Atlanta News First reported, the Italian restaurant was one of the square's steady fixtures for a decade. When owner Greg Lipman closed it at the end of last year and reopened the space in January as Asher & Rose Modern Grocers, a market-and-cafe hybrid with a butcher counter and a wine list, it looked like a savvy pivot for a longtime operator who knew the block better than almost anyone. By May, Asher & Rose had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, less than six months after it first opened.
If you live near the square, you may have noticed the changing storefronts. New signage seems to arrive every few weeks, and news of closures comes too. The turnover can be read as evidence of growth or as a sign of change; the figures and business owners' comments add context.
Twenty-Eight Became Forty-Three, And Customers Didn't Follow
When Lipman opened Piastra in 2015, he told Atlanta News First the square had roughly 28 food and beverage locations. Today he counts about 43. That is more than a 50 percent jump in dining and drinking options on the same few blocks, most of it added in just the past couple of years, according to Lipman's own account.
More restaurants sounds like a win for anyone who lives nearby. More reservations, more variety, more reasons to walk downtown instead of driving to a shopping center. But Lipman was blunt about what that growth actually did to his business: "the increase in options on the square has not brought in more customers," he said, describing restaurants now "spread thin and forced to compete against similar" concepts for the same finite crowd. He put it even more plainly when describing the shift: "there's been an explosion."
The changing lineup is part of the square's current restaurant story. More options can bring more variety, while owners' comments and recent closures show that businesses are navigating a changing market. If you're choosing a spot for Friday dinner, a new opening is one part of the picture.
The Corner Lot That Explains The Other Half Of The Story
A few doors down, at 77 North Park Square, there's a vacant lot locals have nicknamed the Goldstein Gap. It's been empty since 2010, when the family that owns it razed the old Cuthbertson building. Multiple redevelopment plans have fallen through since then, including a proposed brewery and a five-story building that never materialized.
Last September, the Marietta Historic Board of Review approved plans for a Ted's Montana Grill to finally fill the gap, and the city council moved the proposal along with almost no debate. Then, in January, the chain pulled out. Online backlash, mostly concern about a chain restaurant taking one of the square's few remaining historic-adjacent storefronts, was enough to make Ted's reconsider a project it had already cleared every regulatory hurdle for.
In Atlanta News First's report, nearby business owners described their reactions to the withdrawal. Tony Hoops, who has run the boutique Satoria next to the empty lot for 12 years, called it "a punch in the gut." Evelyn Waters, who works a few doors down at Willie Rae's, said a big chain "kinda pushes out the smaller companies." Their comments reflect a broader discussion about the balance between chain businesses and independent operators on the square.
The square's restaurant scene in 2026 includes both a growing number of options and differing views about what kinds of businesses fit its historic character. It isn't a simple growth narrative; it's a place weighing what kinds of growth it wants.
What's Actually Changed Since Spring
Here's a plain accounting of the square's more consequential moves this year, so you don't have to piece it together from three different closures and reopenings the next time you're deciding where to eat.
| Business | What happened | When |
|---|---|---|
| Piastra → Asher & Rose Modern Grocers | Decade-old Italian restaurant rebranded as a market and cafe, then filed Chapter 11 | Reopened January 2026; bankruptcy filed May 2026 |
| Ted's Montana Grill | Approved for the vacant Goldstein Gap lot, then withdrew after public pushback | Approved September 2025; withdrawn January 2026 |
| Deep Roots Wine Market & Tasting Room | Opened as a dedicated tasting room on Church Street | March 17, 2026 |
| West Park Sports Club | Opened in the former Red Hare Brewing & Distilling space | April 20, 2026 |
| Spring | Chef Brian So's Michelin-recognized restaurant reopened in limited capacity after a renovation closure | Spring 2026 |
| El Jalisco | New stall added inside Marietta Square Market food hall | August 17, 2026 |
Look at that list next to the 28-to-43 number and a pattern shows up. The additions that required real buildout, a wine tasting room, a full sports bar concept in a former brewery space, are the kind of capital commitment that signals an operator expects to stay. The additions inside Marietta Square Market, like El Jalisco, are lower-overhead food hall stalls where swapping tenants is easier and cheaper. Neither is wrong to visit. But if you're trying to guess which spot will still be there next spring, the size of the investment behind it is a better clue than how much attention it's getting right now.
The Part Of The Square That Isn't Competing For Your Dinner Reservation
While storefronts churn, the square's event calendar keeps running on a schedule that has nothing to do with restaurant math. Art in the Park, the juried fine art festival presented by the Marietta Business Association, returns to Glover Park for Labor Day weekend, September 5 through 7, marking its 40th year and drawing, by the festival's own count, more than 55,000 visitors over three days. The Glover Park Concert Series has one more free outdoor show on the calendar for August 28 before the weather turns.
October carries two of the square's biggest draws. Chalktoberfest, hosted by the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, runs October 10 and 11 with professional chalk artists and craft beer from more than 40 breweries. A week later, HarvestFest and Scarecrows in the Square takes over Glover Park on October 17, with the scarecrow competition, a pie eating contest, and the Marietta Square Farmers Market running nearby that same morning.
None of that programming depends on which restaurant is trending. The Marietta Parks and Recreation Department runs the concert series and HarvestFest. The Marietta Business Association runs Art in the Park. These are civic and organizational fixtures with decades of continuity behind them, which makes them a much steadier read on the square's actual rhythm than whatever storefront just changed its sign.
What This Means For How You Use The Square
None of this is an argument to avoid the new spots. Try El Jalisco. Give Deep Roots a look if you haven't. The square's restaurant lineup includes new openings and established places alike, so explore the options and follow the businesses that interest you.
The festivals aren't going anywhere. The restaurant lineup will keep reshuffling. Knowing the difference is the actual advantage of living here instead of just visiting.
If you're weighing what any of this means for property near the square, whether you're watching values, thinking about timing a move, or just curious how downtown Marietta's momentum compares to other pockets of Cobb County, the team at Bondy Prestigious Properties tracks these shifts as part of daily work in this market. Get Your Home Valuation whenever you're ready to talk specifics.
