The Talat Market team plans a 60-seat Thai bar beneath Otto’s, with no reservations and an opening month but no confirmed date.
Most of the old Highland Inn came back in 2024.
The building now called Otto’s Apartment Hotel has 70 apartments upstairs. Along North Highland Avenue, Colette Bread occupies the corner, Madeira Park serves wine and small plates in the old cafe, Big Softie sells ice cream and The Zero Co. sells nonalcoholic bottles.
The basement is the last major piece that has not reopened to the public.
That is where Some Luck, a Thai street food bar from Parnass Savang and Rod Lassiter of Talat Market, is now targeting an October opening.
There is still no exact date.
Four opening windows, three already missed
Some Luck was announced on Nov. 19, 2024, with an opening expected in late spring or early summer 2025.
When that did not happen, the target moved to spring 2026. In April, Lassiter said the team was aiming for July 1 and that interior finishing, painting and equipment installation were underway.
July passed. An August neighborhood filing described the restaurant as “coming soon” without publishing another date.
The latest opening window is October. That would put Some Luck roughly 16 months beyond its first expected opening.
None of that proves the restaurant is in trouble. Basement construction inside a 1927 building can uncover problems that a conventional storefront does not have, and the operators have continued moving the project forward.
But October is a target, not an opening date. It is not yet something to build a reservation around, and Some Luck will not accept reservations anyway.
What is actually planned
A recent neighborhood filing describes a 4,000-square-foot restaurant with seating for 60 people. Its proposed hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Monday.
The concept is a walk-in Thai bar built around shareable food rather than a formal dinner sequence. The opening menu is expected to include papaya salad, beef boat noodles, seafood pancakes, shrimp toast, a Thai interpretation of lemon-pepper wings and khao mun gai, a chicken-and-rice dish intended for two.
Former Talat Market chef Josh Rhinehart will lead the kitchen, with Savang designing the menu and Lassiter overseeing operations.
The drink program includes about ten cocktails, many batched in advance for faster service. A tamarind highball and a banana espresso martini are among the drinks being developed. The shorter wine list is expected to carry three European selections by the glass and a small bottle list. Singha will be available on draft, with Leo and Chang sold by the bottle.
General manager Ashley Botzis says the restaurant will not take reservations.
That may be the most consequential detail for the neighborhood. Some Luck is being designed as a place someone walking North Highland can enter without planning days ahead, whether for a full meal or one drink.
The old ballroom is still part of the plan
Guests will enter from North Highland Avenue and descend into the basement through glass-paned doors.
To the right, a darker lounge will contain booths, tables and a six-seat bar. The main room will have an L-shaped bar with 16 stools, drink rails and high-top tables.
The renovation preserves the black-and-white checkerboard tile while adding dark green walls, walnut accents and seats removed from the former Olympic stadium.
Some Luck will operate alongside the existing Highland Ballroom, which is expected to remain available for private events. The restaurant is therefore not replacing every function the basement previously held.
It is reopening the part that has remained inaccessible during the rest of the building’s return.
Why the basement came last
Canvas Companies bought the Highland Inn property in 2021 along with neighboring commercial space and a parking lot.
The building opened in 1927 as Wynne’s Apartment Hotel. After a two-year renovation, it reopened in February 2024 as Otto’s Apartment Hotel, with 70 apartments averaging approximately 400 square feet.
When that work finished, Canvas said it was negotiating with a group to lease the downstairs ballroom space and expected an agreement within weeks.
The Some Luck deal became public nine months later. The restaurant has now been announced for 22 months without opening.
The rest of the block filled in during that wait. Madeira Park opened in February 2025 and later joined the Michelin Guide’s Recommended list. Talat Market is also Michelin Recommended. Neither restaurant holds a Michelin star.
If Some Luck opens, Otto’s will contain two concepts operated by Michelin-recognized teams, along with a bakery, ice cream shop, nonalcoholic bottle store, apartments and private-event space.
This is not a new building or a change to the 70 apartments upstairs. It is the final public-facing piece of an adaptive-reuse project that has otherwise been operating for two years.
I have watched enough Atlanta openings slide to know that a fifth date is not a warning sign by itself, and I would rather these two take the time than hand us a half-finished room. What the timeline should change is your behavior, not your opinion of them: do not plan a birthday around October, do not tell out-of-town friends it is open, and when it does open, go on a weeknight in the first month while walking in is still possible. That is the whole benefit of no reservations, and it expires fast.
