Will the Northwest Beltline boost Westside Atlanta restaurants?
Earlier this year, Rough Draft reported on the growing pains of small businesses on the west side of Atlanta. Now, we’re talking to residents and business owners about how they interact with the neighborhood through shopping, restaurants, personal services, and getting around by car, foot, and bike.
On Aug. 19, Mayor Andre Dickens smashed a magnum bottle of 404 Atlanta Lager against Monday Night Brewing’s newest taproom called “The Grove.” The revamped brewery space is more than eager to accept guests, with a two-story taproom, multiple patios, an in-house pizzeria, and an adjacent, forested area that will eventually host a recreational space dubbed “Camp Monday Night.”
The Grove signifies the degree of progress the Northwest Beltline can bring to Atlanta’s northwest neighborhoods. The Trabert Avenue building, once the “bonus property” of Myers Carpet, sits directly behind the newest segment of the Northwest Beltline near Howell Mill Road and the Atlanta Waterworks. While new bike lanes, upgraded sidewalks, and the Westside Beltline Connector have helped improve the area’s cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in recent years, there’s still more work to be done.
When Monday Night Brewing first opened in 2013 on the edge of Berkeley Park on Atlanta’s west side, the potential Beltline traffic was the last thing on the minds of Jonathan Baker, Jeff Heck, and Joel Iverson. The brewery owners chose the Trabert Avenue location because they could walk there from their homes.
At a time when Georgia’s brewery laws restricted on-site beer sales and limited Monday Night to production only, the industrial makeup of the surrounding neighborhoods worked.
“Back then, Trabert was a dead end [street],” Iverson said.
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But just south of Monday Night Brewing, developers had begun enacting the initial vision for the area that would become known as “West Midtown.”
For developers, the industrial landscape rooted in the railroad had the space to usher in new developments. Chef Anne Quatrano’s Bacchanalia relocated to Westside Provisions District from Buckhead in 1999, and restaurateurs like Chef Ford Fry and Steven Satterfield followed suit in the latter aughts. This portion of Howell Mill Road, along with Huff Road, Marietta Street Artery, and Brady Avenue, felt latent with possibility.
“It seems like West Midtown was a beacon for galleries, retail, [and] nightlife,” Satterfield said of choosing to open Miller Union on Brady Avenue in 2009. “As things continued to open, it was a really exciting time. From 2010 to 2015 … it felt edgy and cool.”
As Georgia’s beer laws changed and Monday Night Brewing grew into a more customer-facing business, the Westside blossomed. Beltline officials took notice, approaching Baker, Heck, and Iverson about their brewery becoming an anchor tenant for the northwest quadrant of the trail.
“They said, ‘Hey, we would love to figure out a way to come down to Trabert and through here,’” Iverson recalled.
In addition to serving as an anchor, Monday Night Brewing’s property also granted the Northwest Beltline a shortcut.
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In 2023, Monday Night Brewing’s owners partnered with The Atlantic Companies to buy and develop a former warehouse and a kudzu-covered bonus building on the Meyers Carpet property on Trabert Avenue.
Iverson said the property, now part of Monday Night’s new Grove taproom complex, became the “critical linchpin” for getting the Beltline across Northside Drive and accessing neighborhoods to the east, like Loring Heights, Atlantic Station, and Home Park.
“The city owns the whole land on Trabert right against the waterworks,” Iverson said. “By cutting through the old Myers Carpet and then crossing Northside Drive, they were able to get across Northside and then cut through the Atlanta Technology Center.”
Monday Night Brewing isn’t the only business banking on more foot traffic with the Northwest Beltline’s completion. The owners of neighboring cafe The Daily intentionally opened on Trabert Avenue in 2022 because of the building’s proximity to the future Northwest Beltline trail.
“We anticipated that the Beltline was going to come in and the only two logical places were where the train tracks are or right across the street,” said Michael Shemtov, who owns The Daily with Jacob Hunter and Melody Shemtov, his wife.
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“Once the Beltline comes, it’ll become a destination that will sort of feel like a secret when you’re here,” Melody Shemtov said. “Atlanta lends itself to that because the roads are not on a grid and there’s little neighborhoods and secret cut-throughs and back entrances and things like that down here. It’s hard not to see the possibilities when you see the Beltline thriving over by Cabbagetown and [Krog Street Market.]”
But Westside restaurateurs farther from the Northwest Beltline, like Satterfield and Urban Grind owner Cassandra Ingram, aren’t so sure they’ll see a boost in business or foot traffic from a completed trail.
“It may encourage people to walk or take a scooter or ride bikes,” Satterfield said. “The majority of our customers wouldn’t be doing that for an evening out at Miller Union, but I think it’s great for the neighborhood, in general.”
Despite numerous restaurant closures over the last three years, Satterfield notes that many of the area’s original restaurants are still open, nearly two decades later. Ten-year leases were just renewed for Marcel at Westside Provisions District and Cooks & Soldiers across the street. Since the pandemic, most of the restaurant closures, give or take a few exceptions like West Egg Cafe and Bartaco, were newer to the neighborhood.
Ingram, whose coffee shop is a little more than two miles from The Grove on the Marietta Street Artery, hopes the completed Northwest Beltline will prove her skepticism about the trail wrong. And while there’s potential for growth with a completed trail, Ingram and Satterfield feel that continued infrastructural development, like adding Beltline rail, would have an even stronger impact on area restaurants and businesses.
“I’m a big fan and supporter of the Beltline, and also of the Beltline rail, for what it’s worth,” Satterfield said. “I think if there was rail, it would make a big difference for everybody.”
Changing people’s perception of the Westside, Satterfield and Ingram believe, will also help its restaurants and businesses regain some momentum. Reporting and social media posts this year on the area’s traffic problems, high parking fees, and public transit issues have left some Westside businesses and restaurants grappling with declines in sales and patrons.
Over the summer, Satterfield and other Westside restaurateurs, including Fry, Quatrano, the Castellucci family, who owns Cooks & Soldiers and Mujō on Howell Mill Road, and Justin Amick, who co-owns Painted Duck on Brady Avenue, formed a coalition dedicated to improving the neighborhood’s image.
The group is currently working with the Upper Westside CID, brainstorming ideas to help draw patrons to multiple businesses within the same week. (Think a bingo card that groups culinary experiences together to highlight all the talent in the neighborhood, or events similar to Westside Stride, which Satterfield called “a great beacon for the neighborhood.”)
“We’re working on some great ideas to present to the general public in the coming months,” Satterfield said of the restaurant coalition.
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