Ruby Chow's is expanding beyond its Old Fourth Ward roots, with plans to open a second Asian fusion restaurant at 739 Trabert Avenue in West Midtown, right next to Monday Night Brewing's outdoor taproom, The Grove. The new location will span nearly 5,100 square feet inside a former office space, more than a full 1,000 square feet larger than the original 3,200-square-foot restaurant that owners Mike Blum and chef Guy Wong opened at 620 Glen Iris on February 20, 2020.
The project was first reported by Tomorrow's News Today - Atlanta, which describes the coming restaurant as one of the first two anchor elements of a broader planned development taking shape around Trabert Avenue, alongside Monday Night Brewing's Grove space. That publication reports the new Ruby Chow's will include sixty dedicated complimentary valet parking spots and is targeting an opening next summer, pending the permitting process still ahead for the site.
The address puts Ruby Chow's directly along the future path of the Atlanta BeltLine expansion trail. Segment 3A of the BeltLine's Northwest Trail, a 0.2-mile stretch that runs right past Trabert Avenue and Monday Night Brewing, opened in July 2025, while groundbreaking on the next phase, Segment 3B, was scheduled for this September, extending roughly a mile under I-75 into Buckhead, according to Urbanize Atlanta.
A Neighborhood Reshaped By Rail-Trail Momentum
Once finished, the Northwest Trail corridor will stretch 4.3 miles and link five neighborhoods — Ardmore, Berkeley Park, Brookwood, Collier Hills, and Loring Heights — knitting together multi-modal transit between West Midtown and Buckhead, Urbanize Atlanta reports. The build-out relies on public-private partnerships with landowners along the route, a dynamic that helps explain why hospitality operators are staking early claims to trailside real estate on Trabert Avenue.
That momentum is already visible next door. Monday Night Brewing's Grove, which officially debuted last August as a 17,000-square-foot outdoor amphitheater-style taproom with twin Italian pizza ovens, a 20-foot LED screen, and 30 beers on draft, sits roughly 90 feet from the brewery's original West Midtown facility, according to Monday Night Brewing. The venue's early popularity has already outpaced expectations: this month, Monday Night Brewing announced its Gluten Freedom Festival, which launched at the Trabert Avenue site in September 2025, was moving to the brewery's larger West End taproom after the inaugural event exceeded the venue's capacity, as Hoodline previously reported.
Citywide, the numbers help explain the rush to the corridor. Atlanta BeltLine Inc. had completed 13.6 miles of its planned 22-mile mainline loop and more than 10 miles of connector trails as of mid-2026, with full loop completion targeted for 2030, according to Buckhead Community. That steady march of infrastructure has turned once-industrial stretches like Trabert Avenue into prime targets for adaptive reuse projects and new construction alike.
Familiar Flavors From A Longtime Atlanta Chef
Chef Guy Wong brings decades of Atlanta restaurant history to the new location. He began cooking as a child in his parents' restaurant, Sam's Gourmet, one of the city's earliest Cantonese dining establishments, per WhatNow Atlanta. Wong later opened the Japanese small-plates spot Miso Izakaya on Edgewood Avenue in 2009, running it until it closed in July 2018 amid lease negotiations, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; he also previously operated the Westside Vietnamese restaurant Le Fat and food stalls Ton Ton and Miso Ko at Ponce City Market.
Some of Miso Izakaya's most beloved dishes are following Wong to Ruby Chow's. The menu carries over the shoyu tamago, a soy sauce-marinated soft-boiled egg served over a crispy rice cake that became an iconic dish during Miso Izakaya's nine-year run, per Rough Draft Atlanta. The broader Ruby Chow's menu spans lobster fried rice, dan dan noodles, shaking beef, assorted steamed buns, and sushi, alongside the original location's small-plates sensibility.
The original Ruby Chow's occupies the street level of Ponce Springs Lofts across from Ponce City Market. Business partner Mike Blum and Wong named the concept after Ruby Chow, a pioneering Chinese American restaurateur and civic leader who opened Seattle's first Chinese restaurant outside that city's Chinatown in 1948 and went on to become the first Asian American elected to the King County Council in 1973, according to the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Chow's Seattle restaurant famously employed a young Bruce Lee as a busboy in 1959.
New Design, New Leadership
To convert the Trabert Avenue office space into a full-service Asian fusion restaurant, Ruby Chow's enlisted Elizabeth Ingram Studio, the interior design firm behind Atlanta dining spaces including Ford Fry's Marcel, Superica Buckhead, and BeetleCat, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Ingram's design background also includes movie set work and custom furniture fabrication.
Brian Seo, who joined Ruby Chow's in 2024, will serve as general manager and beverage director of the new restaurant. Seo previously worked at 26 Thai Kitchen and Nan Thai Fine Dining, according to Tomorrow's News Today - Atlanta.
The Trabert Avenue corridor's rise as a dining and nightlife hub follows a rockier chapter for the same stretch. In February, Atlanta police arrested a suspect, Eris Neal, in connection with a homicide investigation at 588 Trabert Ave NW, on the same West Midtown corridor now drawing new restaurant investment. As the neighborhood continues to fill in around the BeltLine's advancing trail network, Ruby Chow's opening next summer will test whether the corridor's momentum can hold as construction on Segment 3B gets underway nearby.
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