Hal’s The Steakhouse, the longtime Buckhead chophouse, is heading to Midtown Atlanta with a second location planned inside a 24,000-square-foot historic building once known as the Patterson House. Owner Sammy Jimenez will also open a European-inspired cafe and a fine art gallery on the building’s second floor, bringing a multi-concept footprint to a structure that spent decades as a funeral home.
The new location is set to open in early 2028 inside Spring Quarter, a Midtown development at 10th and Spring streets, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Hal’s first opened in 1989 on Old Ivy Road in Atlanta and has built its reputation on New Orleans-inspired hospitality, with a menu that includes steak, seafood and a well-known Caesar salad. The restaurant’s design for the Midtown space comes from Maison Malueé, per the same report.
A Funeral Home’s Second Act
The building Hal’s is moving into carries its own layered history. Designed in 1928 by architect Philip T. Shutze, the Patterson House was previously occupied by H.M. Patterson & Son’s Funeral Home, which held services for notable Atlantans before closing in 2020, the AJC’s report notes. The City of Atlanta granted the building historic landmark status in 2018, a designation that protected its exterior architecture and front gardens — which historically hosted memorial services for figures including “Gone with the Wind” author Margaret Mitchell and former mayors Ivan Allen Jr. and William B. Hartsfield, according to Rough Draft Atlanta.
That landmark status specifically excluded the interior structure, which opened the door for adaptive reuse into restaurant space. Exterior restoration contractor Socium Coatings and JE Dunn Construction completed a comprehensive restoration of the Patterson House’s exterior in 2025, refinishing the brick facade, siding, window shutters and main entrance doors, according to Socium Coatings.
Building A Regional Steakhouse Brand
Hal’s on Old Ivy was originally established by New Orleans native Hal Nowak, whose son Blaiss Nowak went on to build his own metro Atlanta restaurant group, Nowak’s, before Jimenez acquired Hal’s. The Midtown location will mark Hal’s third location overall — the restaurant opened its second location in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2024, and Jimenez plans to open a fourth location in downtown Roswell in mid-2028 as part of a national multi-unit expansion strategy, per the AJC’s report…