Hal's The Steakhouse, the longtime Buckhead chophouse, is heading to Midtown Atlanta with a second location planned inside a 24,000-square-foot historic building once known as the Patterson House. Owner Sammy Jimenez will also open a European-inspired cafe and a fine art gallery on the building's second floor, bringing a multi-concept footprint to a structure that spent decades as a funeral home.
The new location is set to open in early 2028 inside Spring Quarter, a Midtown development at 10th and Spring streets, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hal's first opened in 1989 on Old Ivy Road in Atlanta and has built its reputation on New Orleans-inspired hospitality, with a menu that includes steak, seafood and a well-known Caesar salad. The restaurant's design for the Midtown space comes from Maison Malueé, per the same report.
A Funeral Home's Second Act
The building Hal's is moving into carries its own layered history. Designed in 1928 by architect Philip T. Shutze, the Patterson House was previously occupied by H.M. Patterson & Son's Funeral Home, which held services for notable Atlantans before closing in 2020, the AJC's report notes. The City of Atlanta granted the building historic landmark status in 2018, a designation that protected its exterior architecture and front gardens — which historically hosted memorial services for figures including “Gone with the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell and former mayors Ivan Allen Jr. and William B. Hartsfield, according to Rough Draft Atlanta.
That landmark status specifically excluded the interior structure, which opened the door for adaptive reuse into restaurant space. Exterior restoration contractor Socium Coatings and JE Dunn Construction completed a comprehensive restoration of the Patterson House's exterior in 2025, refinishing the brick facade, siding, window shutters and main entrance doors, according to Socium Coatings.
Building A Regional Steakhouse Brand
Hal's on Old Ivy was originally established by New Orleans native Hal Nowak, whose son Blaiss Nowak went on to build his own metro Atlanta restaurant group, Nowak's, before Jimenez acquired Hal's. The Midtown location will mark Hal's third location overall — the restaurant opened its second location in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2024, and Jimenez plans to open a fourth location in downtown Roswell in mid-2028 as part of a national multi-unit expansion strategy, per the AJC's report.
Hal's arrival adds another marquee name to Atlanta's increasingly crowded high-end steakhouse market. Hoodline previously reported on new Buckhead entrants, and Enzo Steakhouse announced its own Midtown opening this past July.
Moving Into A Dense New Corporate Neighborhood
Spring Quarter itself is a 4.1-acre mixed-use district spanning nearly an entire city block, master-planned by Portman Holdings and Blackstone portfolio company Perform Properties, according to Urbanize Atlanta. The development's 540,000-square-foot office tower, Ten Twenty Spring, finished construction in December 2024 and has already drawn major corporate tenants, positioning Hal's within reach of thousands of daytime office workers.
Pinnacle Financial Partners signed a 165,000-square-foot lease across five floors of the tower in June, establishing a corporate headquarters there for roughly 400 employees, per Pinnacle Financial Partners. Global accounting firm EY leased more than 102,000 square feet for about 3,000 employees, while law firm Reed Smith committed to more than 34,000 square feet on a 12-year lease, according to Commercial Property Executive. Portman Holdings and Blackstone also secured a $278 million refinancing loan from Eldridge Capital Management this month, replacing a $224.2 million construction loan originally provided by Goldman Sachs, as reported by Bisnow.
A Growing Food And Residential Scene
The district's residential base includes Sora, a 370-unit luxury apartment tower built on a former surface parking lot within the campus, according to Portman Holdings. Spring Quarter's food and beverage lineup also includes modern Japanese concept Sozou, led by chef Fuyuhiko Ito, and rooftop cocktail lounge Celestia, per Pulse 2.0.
How Hal's plans to preserve its clubby Buckhead character inside a historically protected, century-old building — while running a steakhouse, cafe and art gallery under one roof — remains to be seen as the 2028 opening approaches.
