Downtown Atlanta's West Side Runs on the Event Calendar This Holiday Season

"One of the major problems with Downtown, which everyone has acknowledged, is that there was a 50-acre hole in the middle of it." Brian McGowan, president of Centennial Yards Co., said that to Georgia Trend this fall. In the same article he said Downtown has reached a tipping point. The magazine reports that about 25% of Centennial Yards was finished as of August 2026. Across Marietta Street, the former CNN Center has opened as The CTR, as Rough Draft Atlanta reported in May.

The part that is open is real, and you can eat, drink and watch something there tonight. The hours tell you what kind of place it is right now, though. The food hall closes at 9 p.m. most nights. The immersive dome only opens for ticketed events. The hotel rooftop has stopped regular service for the season. Downtown's west side works best this December when you build the evening around a fixed date, and the 2027 openings are what will start to change that.

What the 25% actually contains

The Georgia Trend count of finished pieces includes Hotel Phoenix, The Mitchell, a 304-unit high-rise, and Cosm Atlanta. Centennial Yards' own September 16 announcement adds that the 7.5-acre Entertainment District "officially began opening to the public this summer." The release lists Cosm, Shake Shack and The Irish Exit as open and welcoming guests.

Here is what each one is for:

• Cosm Atlanta opened June 10 as a three-level immersive venue built around a large LED dome, according to Urbanize Atlanta. Cosm lists its address as 85 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW, Suite A100. Seating comes in three tiers: reserved Dome booths, reserved Hall tables and first-come general admission. The venue is open during ticketed event hours.
• Shake Shack opened in August at 85 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW, Suite D500.
• The Irish Exit is the district's pub.
• Zephyr Southern Brasserie at Hotel Phoenix serves breakfast, lunch, a midday menu and dinner. Dinner runs 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and you can reserve online.
• Bless Your Heart, the hotel's rooftop bar and restaurant, has ended regular service for the season. Special events continue on select dates, per Hotel Phoenix.

Cosm has no walk-in hours, and the rooftop is closed until spring. That leaves Shake Shack, The Irish Exit and Zephyr as the places you can simply show up to on the Centennial Yards side, which covers dinner and a drink and asks for a plan beyond that.

The CTR is the steadier half

The food that sets its own schedule is across the street. The CTR is a 1.2-million-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment led by CP Group. Its atrium food hall, CTR Food Works, opened in June. CTR Food Works describes the lineup as ten independent kitchens plus a bar:

The hall is at 190 Marietta St. NW. It is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and individual kitchens may vary. Those hours fit a meal before a 7:30 show. They are short for a late dinner after one.

Mastro's Ocean Club changes the late-evening picture. What Now Atlanta reported that the brand opened its first Georgia location on November 6 at 190 Marietta St. NW, Suite 200, inside the former CNN Center. CP Group's Chris Eachus told Georgia Trend he expects total investment in The CTR to come to about $425 million, and that nearly half had been spent so far. The steakhouse is the first big sign of where the rest of that money is headed.

Building a night around a date

Because the anchors here open on event schedules, the calendar is the most useful planning tool. These are the published dates from now through December 20. Times and prices are as each venue lists them, and Cosm notes that event times may change.

Two Saturdays have both big venues booked. On December 5, the SEC Championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Lil Baby at State Farm Arena fall on the same day. On December 12, Cosm is showing Army vs. Navy while the Celebration Bowl plays next door. Those two days show what McGowan's "sports-adjacent entertainment district" looks like at full use.

The quieter dates fit the district's current hours more easily. A Sunday-morning Willy Wonka screening at 9 a.m. on December 13 ends with the food hall's 11 a.m. opening ahead of you. The Nutcracker on Tuesday, December 15, starts at 7:30, so dinner at Zephyr or Mastro's comes first.

How the pieces connect on foot

Filling in the Gulch also changes how Downtown fits together for walking. McGowan told Georgia Trend that the new pedestrian connections link Castleberry Hill, South Downtown and the Fairlie-Poplar district. A night that starts at the CTR food hall and ends at the Cosm dome can now be planned as one route on foot.

Nearby, Underground Atlanta is filling in more slowly. Owner Shaneel Lalani told the magazine that the four-block property was 5% leased when Lalani Ventures bought it in 2020. It is 65% leased now, and a six-station food hall is slated for early 2027.

What 2027 adds, and why it matters for the hours

The announced openings are the pieces that would let this part of Downtown keep going after the games and shows end:

1. A 5,300-seat Live Nation venue and a 261-key Virgin Hotel, both expected in 2027, per the Centennial Yards announcement.
2. The Busy Bee Café and Khao Thai Isan, slated to open at The Mitchell in 2027.
3. Chops Lobster Bar, slated for 2027, and Varuni Napoli, also planned for the Entertainment District.
4. Park Bench, the dueling piano bar that spent 27 years in Buckhead and was an early home for Zac Brown, is opening its second location in the district. Rough Draft Atlanta lists it for 2027.
5. A Fanatics flagship sports store, anticipated in 2027.
6. The Looking Glass at The CTR, scheduled for the second quarter of 2027. It is a 38,000-square-foot venue inspired by Alice in Wonderland, with an adult scavenger hunt, European nine-pin bowling, carnival and table games, and a hall of illusions.

Rough Draft Atlanta also reported that Live-K Karaoke leased 10,512 square feet in the former Downtown Dantanna's space on Andrew Young International Boulevard, with an opening described as "next fall."

A concert hall, a hotel, a piano bar and a karaoke room all give people a reason to be on these blocks at 11 p.m. on nights with no game in the stadium. Until they open, the CTR food hall's 9 p.m. close from Sunday through Wednesday and Cosm's ticket-only schedule set the shape of an evening here.

Big projects like Centennial Yards and The CTR change more than where you spend a Saturday. They also feed into how buyers and appraisers think about the intown neighborhoods around them. If you'd like to know how Downtown's 2027 pipeline might show up in your home's value, Adrianne Grant offers a complimentary home valuation and consultation, backed by appraisal-level analysis of what is actually changing near you.