Heritage Supper Club is scheduled to open Thursday, September 10, on Georgia Avenue in Summerhill, joining a restaurant corridor undergoing turnover as well as new investment. Chef Demetrius Brown is opening the Afro-Caribbean tasting-menu restaurant with business partner Brandon Blanchard after four years of operating Heritage in temporary Atlanta locations, according to DiningOut.
Georgia Avenue’s changing restaurant mix
Crispy Express closed in May after rising ingredient costs and unsuccessful lease negotiations. Smiley’s Burger Club began operating from that space on September 1, according to Hoodline. Hero Diner, Psito and Junior’s Pizza have also left the area, Rough Draft Atlanta reported.
The turnover is unfolding as Georgia Avenue is included in an 80-acre mixed-use redevelopment led by Carter with Georgia State University around Center Parc Stadium, according to Hoodline. Heritage will enter the corridor as restaurants change hands while housing, retail and other redevelopment projects continue nearby.
Summerhill’s history and redevelopment
Summerhill’s current restaurant activity follows a longer history of Black settlement and large-scale redevelopment. According to a Georgia State University Library exhibit, the neighborhood was first settled at the end of the Civil War as one of Atlanta’s first African-American residential enclaves, with Wood’s Chapel and Summer Hill School established there in 1867. A historical sketch from the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History says a large segment of Summerhill was razed by 1965 for Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, reshaping the neighborhood before today’s corridor emerged. The current redevelopment is broader than restaurant construction. The official Summerhill Atlanta site describes the 80-acre project as combining streetscapes, culture, food, entertainment, academics, housing and offices, while Urbanize Atlanta reported that more than 1,200 apartments and townhomes had opened or were under construction around Georgia State University’s Center Parc Stadium.
What Heritage brings to the area
Brown and Blanchard previously worked together at The Hill at Serenbe in Chattahoochee Hills and The Pinewood in Decatur, according to Bartender.com. In August 2023, they acquired Inman Park restaurant Bread & Butterfly, retaining its European-style breakfast and lunch offerings while adding dinner menus influenced by the African diaspora.
Bread & Butterfly was one of two Georgia restaurants included on The New York Times’ 2024 list of the 50 best restaurants in America, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Heritage’s tasting menu draws on Jamaican, Haitian and Trinidadian traditions alongside African, Latin American and Southern influences. Its restaurant spaces include a kitchen, dining room, lounge, cocktail bar and chef’s counter.
The beverage program is associated with Atlanta beverage expert Keyatta Mincey and emphasizes spirits from Black-owned, BIPOC-owned, women-owned and local producers, according to Resy. Brown and Blanchard chose Summerhill in part because of the neighborhood’s history as one of Atlanta’s original Freedmen’s settlements, according to reporting cited in the opening coverage.
Opening schedule and next steps
Heritage will serve dinner Tuesday through Saturday. The restaurant is also hosting Cocktails & Castoffs, a benefit for Development in Gardening, in collaboration with neighboring Halfway Crooks Brewery and guest chefs Justin Dixon and Maximilian Hines. The event details were shared by Development in Gardening, which says the benefit marks the organization’s 20th anniversary of international work supporting sustainable farming.
Brown and Blanchard are planning two additional concepts: a focaccia-crust pizza restaurant and a fast-casual version of Heritage Supper Club. Those plans, like the four-year pop-up history and several opening details, are reported by DiningOut and remain future proposals rather than operating businesses.
