Mule Train, the first brick-and-mortar restaurant from Mike and Shyretha Sheats, is set to open Sept. 30 at 87 Broad St. in Atlanta's South Downtown. The couple built their reputation through The Plate Sale, a pop-up and supper-club series, and now they're bringing that same seasonal, Southern sensibility to a permanent home on Broad Street.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Sheatses will debut their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in the South Downtown development on Sept. 30, opening with a seasonal, Southern menu. The seasonal menu will rotate according to what local farmers have available, the paper reports, and the cocktail menu will be tightly focused with a selection of classic drinks and seasonal ingredients.
Mule Train traces its roots to The Plate Sale, which ran as a pop-up and supper-club series, according to Downtown Atlanta. The Plate Sale has operated for nearly a decade, and Mike and Shyretha Sheats have had intertwined careers in that time for more than a decade before deciding to put down roots on Broad Street.
A Couple's Path From Carlton to Atlanta's Restaurant Scene
Mike and Shyretha Sheats have been together for 20 years after meeting through friends at a Christmas party, the AJC's report notes. Shyretha Sheats grew up in Carlton, Georgia, about 20 miles northeast of Athens, where Mike Sheats was also raised, and she went on to attend Georgia State University before the pair built their culinary partnership together.
That rural Georgia upbringing appears to inform how Mike Sheats sources ingredients for the restaurant. He drives around the state, volunteering at farms for a day or so to get familiar with area growers and seek out those who aren't billed on farm-to-table menus, according to the food-culture nonprofit Southern Foodways Alliance. That legwork lines up with the seasonal ethos the couple has promised for Mule Train's kitchen and bar.
What's on the Menu at the New Broad Street Spot
The restaurant is expected to occupy about 40 seats spread across 1,700 square feet, per Atlanta Magazine. Lunch will lean on a “meat and three” power-lunch format, while dinner shifts into fine-casual territory with a menu of eight to 12 items and an optional prix fixe of four to six courses, the outlet reports. The magazine adds that the menu is a celebration of Southern flavors, with a seasonal approach and a strong emphasis on collaboration with local growers and purveyors.
The bar program will follow that same seasonal logic, featuring small New World wine producers alongside cocktails made with house-crafted syrups, according to the same Atlanta Magazine account. Whatnow.com separately describes the concept as a beverage program driven by intentional cocktails with a similar focus on seasonality, and notes the space will preserve the original brick and high ceilings from the building.
Timelines for the opening have shifted over the past year. Whatnow.com had earlier reported the restaurant was slated to open in May, while Atlanta Magazine's report described Mule Train as arriving in South Downtown in the spring — both earlier than the September 30 date now cited by the AJC.
Joining a Growing South Downtown Food Scene
Mule Train will land just a few doors from Broad Street BBQ, Glide Pizza, El Tesoro and Estrellita, according to Downtown Atlanta's earlier reporting on the property. The neighborhood group South Downtown says it is reimagining 58 buildings across 16 acres in the historic center of the city, with Broad Street itself carved out for restaurants, retail, cocktail bars, co-working space and offices.
The dining guide theinfatuation.com has flagged Mule Train as one of the city's notable fall openings, suggesting the restaurant's arrival lines up in time for Atlanta's 2026 soccer tournament, though that timing has been described only as an expectation rather than a confirmed plan. Either way, for a couple who spent nearly a decade running supper clubs out of borrowed spaces, Sept. 30 marks the first time Mule Train gets walls, a kitchen and an address all its own.
