If you live in Cobb and you have not walked the Square since spring, the block looks the same and reads completely different. The room that used to be a special-occasion Italian reservation is now a place to pick up cheese and a bottle of wine on a Tuesday. The corner that has been vacant since 2010 is still vacant. And the last Friday of every month, the streets around Glover Park belong to lawn chairs.
The thesis for summer 2026 is simple: the Square has quietly shifted from a destination you plan for to a neighborhood you use. The new openings are less about occasion dining and more about weekday utility, and the concert calendar is the single most important piece of information for anyone who wants a table between 6 and 10 p.m. on a Friday.
The room swap that changes your weekday
Start at 45 West Park Square. After a decade on Marietta Square, Piastra shifted gears and morphed into a new concept called Asher & Rose Grocers, with mother-son owners Chef Greg Lipman and Betty Bahl reopening their former restaurant as a market-and-café setup. Piastra's final dinner service under its original name took place on December 31, 2025, and the space hosted its grand reopening as Asher & Rose Grocers on January 28, 2026.
Read past the names and the practical shift is bigger than a rebrand. The shelves now carry fresh produce, regional dairy and cheeses, dry goods, plus a butcher shop with customized cuts of meat and fish, alongside prepared meals and a café menu. The block that used to be a special-occasion Italian reservation is now a weekday errand with a wine list. If you live in East Cobb or the neighborhoods that ring downtown Marietta, that is a change in what the Square is for.
One door up at 29 West Park Square, another swap. West Park Sports Club opened on April 20, 2026, in the former Red Hare Brewing & Distilling space at 29 West Park Square on Marietta Square. The new spot is described as an upscale sports bar with plenty of TVs, a darker interior, and leather seating. Early menu details suggest a mix of bar food and polished small plates, including crispy rice with tuna, crab rangoon flatbread, and bulgogi cheesesteak sliders. West Park Sports Club comes from Fork U Concepts, the restaurant group behind Taqueria Tsunami and Stockyard Burgers and Bones.
And a third addition on Church Street: Deep Roots Wine Market & Tasting Room officially opened on March 17, 2026. That gives the Square a dedicated tasting room in addition to the wine and cocktail programs at Asher & Rose and the existing bar rooms.
Three doors, three uses. A grocery-café, a sports bar, and a tasting room now sit within a two-minute walk of each other, in spaces that used to hold a fine-dining Italian, a brewery, and retail.
The scoreboard: what opened, what closed, what's coming
If you have been trying to keep up in your group chat, here is the short version.
| Place | Status | Where | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asher & Rose Grocers | Open | 45 West Park Square (former Piastra) | Jan 28, 2026 |
| West Park Sports Club | Open | 29 West Park Square (former Red Hare) | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Deep Roots Wine Market | Open | Church Street | Mar 17, 2026 |
| Tenku Sushi Elevation | Open | Avenue East Cobb | Spring 2026 |
| Taqueria El Güero | Open | 2200 Roswell Rd, Ste 160 & 170 | Jan 2026 |
| Casa Grande Bar & Grill | Open | Franklin Gateway, Marietta | Feb 13, 2026 |
| Spring (Michelin-starred) | Reopened in limited capacity | Marietta Square | Winter 2026 |
| Antika | Coming soon | 34 Powder Springs St | Permits filed |
| Dumpling Master | Coming soon | Providence Square, former La Madeleine | TBD |
| Pisano's | Coming soon | 35 North Park Square | TBD |
| La Madeleine | Closed | Providence Square Shopping Center | May 22, 2026 |
| Tin Lizzy's Cantina | Closed | Avenue East Cobb | Dec 31, 2025 |
A few of these deserve a second look. Acclaimed Marietta fine-dining restaurant Spring, which shut down last year for renovations, announced this week on social media that it has reopened in a limited capacity. The reopening was quiet on purpose, and if you have been holding onto a Spring gift card, this is your signal to use it.
After more than 30 years in East Cobb, La Madeleine in Providence Square Shopping Center closed permanently on May 22, 2026 at 3 pm. The closure leaves the French bakery-café chain with two regular metro Atlanta locations, in Duluth and Buford, plus airport kiosks at Hartsfield-Jackson. The space is not staying empty for long. Dumpling Master is opening in the former La Madeleine space at Providence Square in East Cobb. The Georgia-based Chinese restaurant brand is known for soup dumplings, pan-fried dumplings, sheng jian bao, noodles, fried rice, dim sum, and bubble tea.
Two new entrants worth naming by street. Taqueria El Güero on Roswell Road opened in January 2026 at 2200 Roswell Rd, Suites 160 & 170 in Marietta. The restaurant runs counter service and includes a salsa and toppings bar for easy customization. Menu options cover tacos, tortas, burritos, quesadillas, sopes, nachos, flautas. And on the long-underused Franklin Gateway corridor, Casa Grande Bar & Grill, which opened in February 2026, shows steady commercial infill.
Watch Powder Springs Street too. Antika will have about 35 to 40 indoor seats, but the patio is expected to be a major part of the experience. The patio includes a city-painted mural and a historic magnolia tree. Live music is planned for the patio.
The Friday-night math
If you want to sit down anywhere near the Square on the last Friday of the month this summer, plan by noon. The reason:
April 24: Yacht Rock Schooner (70's Smooth Rock). May 29: A1A (Jimmy Buffet Tribute band). June 26: Guardians of the Jukebox (Soundtrack of the 80's). July 31: Seven Bridges (Eagles Tribute Band). August 28: Kasper and The 911 Band (R&B and Pop). September 25: Nashville Nation (Modern Country Hits).
Presented by Wellstar Health System, the series features six concerts on the last Friday of each month, with all performances beginning at 8 p.m. at Glover Park, 50 N. Park Square. Free, blanket-and-chair, and loud enough that the surrounding restaurants plan around it.
There is a rule most residents relearn every summer. Only blankets and lawn chairs are allowed inside of Glover Park; tables, tarps and plastic ground coverings are prohibited inside of Glover Park and will be removed. If you want a table, personal tables must be set up in the street after 6 p.m. and are not allowed inside the park.
The mental model is short: the park is for chairs, the street is for tables, and the restaurants are for anyone who did not plan ahead.
If Friday nights are the headline, Thursdays in May and September are the underrated companion. Each Thursday in May and September, the Brown Bag Concert Series runs from noon to 1 p.m. in Glover Park, featuring free music in the Historic Marietta Square. An hour of free music at lunch is the easiest way to break up a work-from-home week without touching the calendar.
The Goldstein Gap, still gapping
You know the empty corner. Ted's Montana Grill had planned to open a new location on Marietta Square after receiving historic review approval in 2025, but the restaurant later reversed course, confirming on January 8, 2026, that the project has been canceled, with company leadership citing negative social media feedback as part of the decision. Nicknamed the "Goldstein Gap," the lot has sat vacant since the former councilman razed the Cuthbertson building on the site in 2010. Sixteen years is a long time for a corner lot on a Square this active.
If you have been telling out-of-town guests that "something is finally going in there," you can retire that line for the summer. The Square is denser and busier than it was a year ago, and yet the most photographable gap on it is still a gap.
Farther out: what changed off the Square
Two moves are worth knowing beyond downtown. Tenku Sushi Elevation is now open, bringing a polished new Japanese restaurant to Avenue East Cobb. The restaurant pairs a sleek lounge atmosphere with a menu built around sushi, sashimi, premium seafood, and refined presentation. That fills part of the gap left by another Avenue East Cobb departure. As of December 31, 2025, Atlanta-based Southern Proper Hospitality Group permanently closed two concepts at Avenue East Cobb. The closures include the Tex-Mex restaurant Tin Lizzy's Cantina and the adjacent entertainment venue Tin Pin Game Bar. No replacement tenants or future plans for the spaces have been announced at this time.
On Johnson Ferry, a small pattern worth noticing. The Wendy's located at the corner of Johnson Ferry and East Cobb Drive abruptly closed on February 19, 2026. The shutdown follows the earlier closing of another Johnson Ferry Wendy's (3120 Johnson Ferry Rd), which has since been redeveloped into Piedmont Urgent Care. Two fast-food corners on the same road, both now off the map.
A resident's playbook for the rest of summer
- Last Friday, every month, through September. Reserve or forget it. Tables in the street, chairs in the park.
- Saturday morning. Farmers market on the Square, then walk one block for pastries at Asher & Rose or wine tasting at Deep Roots.
- Weeknight dinner. Sushi at Tenku over at Avenue East Cobb, or tacos and birria on Roswell Road at El Güero.
- Thursday lunch in May and September. Brown Bag concert at noon in Glover Park. Bring the sandwich.
- The gift-card drawer. Spring is quietly open again. Use it.
The Square is not becoming something new. It is becoming more useful. And when a neighborhood shifts from special-occasion to daily-utility, that is usually a signal about where the surrounding market is heading.
If you are curious how that shift is showing up in home values across Cobb County and the surrounding neighborhoods we serve, the team at The Kinnebrew Group is happy to talk through it. When you are ready to see what your home is worth in this market, get your free home valuation.
