Hal's Is Bringing Its Old-School Atlanta Swagger to Midtown's Historic Patterson House

If you know where Atlanta goes for a perfectly cooked steak, a strong martini and a room filled with people who don't need to be introduced, you know Hal's. For nearly four decades, Hal's "The Steakhouse" has occupied a particular place in Atlanta dining culture; it isn't the restaurant you visit because it suddenly appeared on your feed, but rather one people have been returning to for years. Dark lighting, live music, career servers, prime steaks, regulars with preferred tables, business conversations unfolding over martinis, and dinners that have a tendency to turn into entire evenings define its atmosphere. Since opening on Old Ivy Road in Buckhead in 1989, Hal's has become one of Atlanta's enduring power-dining rooms, combining New Orleans influences, seafood and prime steaks with an old-school hospitality increasingly difficult to replicate.

Now, Hal's is preparing for perhaps its most ambitious chapter yet. Owner Sammy Jimenez is bringing the Atlanta institution to Midtown, where Hal's will anchor the historic Patterson House at Spring Quarter, the former H.M. Patterson & Son Spring Hill funeral home. Expected to open in early 2028, the project will be much more than a second Atlanta steakhouse, as Hal's is bringing a European-inspired cafe downstairs, a global fine-art gallery upstairs and nearly 40 years of Atlanta social currency into a landmark approaching its 100th birthday.

A New Home With Nearly a Century of Atlanta History

If Hal's represents one generation of Atlanta history, the Patterson House represents another. This approximately 24,000-square-foot building was designed in 1928 by celebrated Atlanta architect Philip Trammell Shutze, also behind the Swan House. Originally home to the H.M. Patterson & Son Spring Hill Chapel, the property served Atlanta families for generations, with its history intersecting with notable names such as Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and former Atlanta mayors Ivan Allen Jr. and William Hartsfield. The building eventually received Atlanta landmark status, protecting its historic structure and grounds as Midtown developed around it, before Portman acquired the larger property in 2019. Rather than erase the Patterson, the developer incorporated it into something much larger, positioning the historic building and its renovated gardens at the center of Spring Quarter, surrounded by a decidedly 21st-century Atlanta skyline including Sora and Ten Twenty Spring towers, and soon, Hal's.

Steaks Downstairs. Art Upstairs.

The scale of the Patterson House gives Jimenez an opportunity to expand the Hal's universe beyond what exists in Buckhead. The main level will become the new Hal's restaurant, redesigned by Walix Corporation and Maison Maluee principal designer Maria Dominguez to preserve the historic character of the Patterson while introducing a new, unmistakably upscale hospitality experience that pays homage to the architecture. But dinner is only one piece of the plan; Hal's will also introduce a European-inspired cafe downstairs, serving coffee, pastries, and simple breakfast offerings, meaning the Patterson will begin its day considerably earlier than the Hal's crowd is accustomed to. Additionally, on the second floor, Jimenez plans to open a global fine-art gallery alongside curators Alex Soto and Andres Rodriguez, which will operate during the day, remain open throughout dinner service, and function as a private-event venue and cocktail-hour destination. This creates an intriguing progression through the building: coffee in the morning, art in the afternoon, cocktails upstairs, steaks and martinis downstairs, and the possibility of never really needing to leave.

Why Hal's Matters to Spring Quarter

The announcement also represents a significant win for Portman, as plans for the Patterson House had changed before, with a previous project involving The Indigo Road Hospitality Group not moving forward. Instead, Portman waited, with head of retail development Dotan Zuckerman praising Hal's as 'an Atlanta institution, a legendary concept, and a gift to Midtown'—a distinction that matters because Spring Quarter, while having modern ingredients, gains something a developer cannot build from scratch: legacy. Hal's expansion further establishes its growth beyond the intimate Old Ivy Road address, with the original Buckhead flagship, a Nashville location, and another Hal's planned for Roswell in mid-2028. The Patterson House will become Hal's second Atlanta restaurant and another major step in turning a deeply local institution into a larger hospitality brand, but Midtown may ultimately become the most interesting expression of Hal's yet. This isn't an attempt to duplicate Old Ivy Road, as the Patterson offers a unique 1928 architectural landmark, historic gardens, multiple floors, and enough space to create an ecosystem around the restaurant itself, something Buckhead cannot provide.

From Buckhead to Midtown

Jimenez acknowledged that choosing another Atlanta location carried considerably more weight than simply adding another restaurant, stating that the Patterson offered the opportunity to expand the Hal's legacy while honoring the history and character of its neighborhood. Perhaps the most interesting part of the announcement has little to do with steak; it is what the move says about Atlanta itself. For decades, Buckhead has been the city's traditional center of luxury, defining upscale Atlanta, but Midtown is increasingly creating another version of it with high-rise residences, corporate towers, walkability, architecture, art, and destination restaurants designed to stretch from morning through late evening. Spring Quarter embodies much of that shift, and bringing Hal's there effectively connects those two Atlantas, moving an institution born in Buckhead in 1989 into a Midtown building born in 1928, surrounded by towers that did not exist a few years ago. There is something almost cinematic about the combination, and the timing makes it even better: when Hal's is expected to open at the Patterson in early 2028, the building will be celebrating approximately 100 years in Atlanta, beginning its second century entertaining another era of Atlanta society; despite the city around the Patterson having changed almost beyond recognition, the building survived, and now one Atlanta institution is moving into another, creating an *elegant* convergence of past and present.

Hal's at the Patterson House is expected to open at Spring Quarter in Midtown Atlanta in early 2028.