Krog Street tunnel is elaborately covered from floor to ceiling in graffiti, but drive just a bit further on Krog Street and a large metal sign with yellow letters that reads “Stove Works” becomes visible on the horizon. Once home to The Atlanta Stove Works in 1889, 99 Krog Street is the site of Krog Street Market (KSM), a new food hall market in Inman Park.
The property, managed by Atlanta real estate firm Paces Properties, is host to nearly 20 different restaurants and shops including Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Fred’s Meat and Bread and The Spotted Trotter.
“The idea was to assemble the best chefs and restaurateurs in Atlanta in one location,” George Banks of Paces Properties wrote in an email interview. “The concept has been done before, and we had the benefit of learning from several great food halls already in existence, from the Melrose Market in Seattle to the Ferry Building in San Francisco.”
The Luminary, an American Brasserie from Top Chef alumnus Eli Kirshtein, opened its doors on August 5 as the first restaurant in the market. Kirshtein said he chose the market as the location for his restaurant because of the history.
“I wanted to find a building that had a lot of identity and a lot of personality and had some history,” he said. “And the building, you know, being about 125 years old, I was really happy that I was able to get in some old bones, some old walls, you know, a place that had really seen some things in the city.”
Kirshtein, an Atlanta native, is passionate about the history of his hometown and this can be seen throughout his work. He named the restaurant after Atlanta’s first newspaper, The Luminary, published in 1846. He hopes Krog Street Market will further help with the development of the city.
“I’m really looking forward to how all of the tenants are going to progress and be kind of an anchor to the community,” Kirshtein said. “I think that it will be interesting just because obviously the whole area has been through a big renaissance over the past few years and I think it’s just going be a good catalyst to make the neighborhood even more appealing.”
Another tenant, Sarah O’Brien, owner and baker at The Little Tart Bakeshop, said she is also looking forward to the collaboration that comes with being a member of Krog Street Market.
“I think that, just like with farmers markets, which is another thing [The Little Tart Bakeshop] loves to do, you develop a really great relationship with the people you work around and you know there’s a lot of feedback and ideas shared,” O’Brien said.
And this is no random group of vendors. The masterminds behind the project at Paces Properties specially picked the tenants of Krog Street Market.
“We looked at other food halls around the country and with the help of a local food writer came up with our merchandising plan,” Banks wrote. “This was a list of the top 20 or so types of uses we wanted in the market—like coffee, bakery, charcuterie, etc.—and then we went and identified who we thought were the best operators in each.”
One of those operators is Yvonne Gu Khan. Khan’s Krog Street Market restaurant, Gu’s Dumplings is a mini version of her larger, full-service authentic Szechuan cuisine restaurant, Gu’s Bistro, located on Buford Highway. Khan said a lot of her customers came from downtown and felt the area was lacking a good Chinese restaurant, so when the chance to open a small shop in Krog Street Market came about, Khan jumped at the opportunity.
Zahed Khan, Yvonne Gu Khan’s husband, said he thinks Krog Street Market will become a destination in Atlanta.
“Instead of traveling to three to four different restaurants you basically have, you know, the best of Atlanta and you are in one central location,” Zahed said.
Currently only two restaurants, The Luminary and Craft Izakaya, are open in the market, but Banks said he expects all restaurants and shops to be open by Thanksgiving.
“Hopefully KSM will be a place where generations of Atlantans can come to enjoy all sorts of great retail and great food,” Banks wrote. “The kind of place that if you leave town you can’t wait to visit when you return.”
