Today, North American Properties managing partner Mark Toro provided more details about the scope of the project, which will bring some twelve to fifteen purveyors to the food hall, along with revitalized indoor and outdoor spaces that will be the site for some 200 events a year that range from yoga classes to concerts.
Slated to open in the fall of 2019, Main & Mail will include 21,000 square feet of indoor space – what is currently the atrium at Colony Square – as well as 7,000 square feet of outdoor space. Serving as an anchor will be a central bar with what Toro described as "an indoor/outdoor set-up where people are seated outdoors at the bar looking into the food hall through a set of operable windows." Toro likened the bar design to that of Kona Grill at Avalon, the $1 billion mixed-use district in Alpharetta that North American Properties also developed.
The company has tapped Steve Palmer, restaurateur and managing partner for Charleston-based hospitality and consulting group Indigo Road, to curate food operators for Main & Main.
“The key is that we secure the best-in-class operators,” said Toro.
Palmer said that he would look to select unique concepts that are not currently found in other food halls and “not their tenth location.” He cited Indian street food, a salad/grain bowls, oyster bar, Southern, Italian, juice bar, dim sum and Mexican as among the food categories he anticipates having a presence at Main & Main. All of them would be fast-casual.
“Hopefully, by the end of the year we will be able to get close to our lineup,” Palmer said.
Palmer's own Indigo Road will operate the to-be-named bar at Main & Main as well as a Japanese concept called Sukoshi, which translates to "a little bit." Indigo Road currently operates 15 restaurant concepts throughout the Southeast, including three in Atlanta ( O-Ku Sushi , Oak Steakhouse , Colletta ), with another, Donetto, soon to serve up Tuscan cuisine on the Westside .
Operating space at the food hall is also being offered to local nonprofit City of Refuge for its culinary arts program 180 Degree Kitchen.
Plans also include complementary concepts such as flower, chocolate and pastry pop-ups.
The design of Main & Main will have a mid-century, modern feel that reflects Colony Square’s inception in the 1960s. “It harkens back to the ‘Mad Men’ era,” Toro said.
Leading the design is David Thompson, a restaurant designer and architect who has had a hand locally in the look and layout of O-Ku Sushi as well as Oak Steakhouse.
One focal point will be the Grove. Located at Juniper and 14th Streets, this shaded green space will offer soft seating and a beer garden, and will serve as the entrance to Main & Main.
Construction is slated to begin on Main & Main this fall. According to Toro, the atrium at Colony Square will shut down by year’s end.
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