What's New On Peachtree City's Summer Dining Map

When a reporter from The Citizen showed up to interview Chef Andrea Montobbio at his new restaurant Bicicletta last month, Montobbio couldn't shake his hand. He'd been outside in the dirt, helping his business partner David Gibbs build the bocce court. Both men were sweaty, dusty, and working their way through the final details of a restaurant that had consumed months of their lives.

That is not the posture of a corporate rollout. And it is the small detail that explains what is actually happening to the dining scene here this summer.

Peachtree City is in the middle of its most active restaurant year in recent memory, but the interesting story is not the count. It is the direction. The independent, chef-driven openings are landing on the north side of town, in Kedron Village, while the national brands keep stacking up at The Avenue and along Market Place Boulevard. For residents deciding where to eat this Friday, that split is starting to matter.

Kedron Village Gets a Chef-Owned Anchor

Bicicletta opened on Tuesday, June 23, in the Kedron Village Shopping Center, taking the roughly 3,500-square-foot endcap that Panera left when it closed this past January. The address is 1263 N Peachtree Parkway, across the parking lot from Target.

It is the second concept from the team behind ENZO Steakhouse & Bar in Fayetteville, and it is deliberately not a second ENZO. ENZO has built a loyal following throughout south metro Atlanta as an Italian steakhouse known for premium steaks, seafood, and polished service. Bicicletta is aiming for something different. "It's a different concept," Montobbio said. "ENZO is a steakhouse, and this is an Italian restaurant."

The kitchen is set up to signal that difference. Bicicletta uses an imported pasta extruder to produce fresh pasta daily, and the pizzas begin with a dough that undergoes a 72-hour fermentation process using imported Italian flour. The pizza menu is where the personality shows up. You can keep things classic with a Margherita for $16, or try Bologna's Dream at $21, topped with mortadella, burrata, and pistachio vinaigrette. Another is The Amalfi Pie, featuring smoked mozzarella, guanciale, Gulf shrimp, lemon, and arugula. And then there is the one Montobbio built to pick a fight. Called Ma NOOOO, the $19 pie combines grilled pineapple, taleggio cheese, and aged balsamic.

Beyond the food, the room is built to hold you for a while. Warm honey-toned woods, oversized windows, and vintage cycling memorabilia fill a 3,500-square-foot corner space, with rich orange banquettes and soft blue accents. An open kitchen puts the craft of pasta-making and pizza production on display, and a 10-seat bar, communal tables, and seating for 50 guests indoors, including refurbished church pews, encourage conversation from lunch through dinner. Add the outdoor bocce court and a patio, and you get the closest thing Kedron has had in years to a genuine third place.

"This was built for Peachtree City," Montobbio said. "I fell in love with Peachtree City. I love the community. I love everything about it."

Hours are Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner, closed Mondays.

The Avenue Keeps Adding National Names

Down at The Avenue Peachtree City, the strategy is different. This spring the center welcomed Biscuit Belly, a Louisville-based Southern brunch chain that had been scouting the Atlanta suburbs for months.

"In the heart of Atlanta, it's very hard to find real estate and it's very expensive, so we started to look more at the suburbs surrounding Atlanta," CEO Chad Coulter told What Now Atlanta. "We had heard really good things about Peachtree City. It's a great food market for restaurants and is a thriving city, but you still get that great access to Atlanta."

The space itself was built as a destination, not a slot-in. The Avenue Peachtree City location is set at 3,364 square feet, and features include a biscuit making window, a shimmer wall, and several other stand-out design concepts for guests to enjoy.

The menu leans into biscuit sandwiches rather than pancake-and-waffle standards. Signature options include the Brisket Biscuit with smoked brisket, spicy belly pickles and poblano-tomato sauce, and Mama's Boy with buttermilk fried chicken breast, roasted jalapeño pimento cheese, spicy belly pickles and fried green tomato. The brand also runs a bar program with brunch cocktails and handcrafted espresso beverages.

For weekend brunch in the walkable stretch of The Avenue, it fills a gap that has been open for a while.

Market Place Boulevard's Slow Turnover

The third big change of 2026 is still under construction. Work is underway to bring J. Alexander's to Peachtree City, where the former Smokey Bones building at 100 Market Place Boulevard is being cleared out to make way for the new restaurant, which was approved by the Peachtree City Planning Commission in 2025.

The pace picked up in June. J. Alexander's is preparing to open its fourth location in Georgia at 100 Market Place Blvd in Peachtree City later this summer, bringing the brand to a new community south of Atlanta. If you have driven past and wondered about the size of the operation, the hiring plan tells you: the Peachtree City restaurant plans to hire 90 to 100 front- and back-of-house team members. That is a full-service polished-casual footprint, not a quick-service concept.

The menu is the recognizable J. Alexander's format. The restaurant will operate seven days a week, offering a menu of hand-cut steaks, signature salads and sandwiches, handcrafted cocktails and an extensive wine list, with a polished yet inviting atmosphere that extends to a private dining room. Hiring began in late June, so the space should transition from "coming soon" signage to actual doors-open in the back half of the summer.

A Quieter Handoff at Grazing Here

The change that will affect the most regulars is not an opening at all. It is a sale.

After more than a decade of serving the community, Gene and Becca have officially sold Grazing Here, passing the restaurant on to new owners who will continue its tradition of great food, hospitality, and community connections. In their announcement, Gene and Becca expressed heartfelt gratitude to the loyal guests, dedicated staff, and many friends who helped make Grazing Here a local favorite over the years. Special thanks went to General Manager Heather Wiggins for her leadership and commitment, as well as longtime team members Eddie and Larry.

Ownership transitions at independent restaurants can go one of two ways. The menu and staff continuity are the tell in the first ninety days. Worth checking back in on this fall.

Reading the Map

Line up the four moves and a pattern shows up. Two national or regional chains are landing on the heavily trafficked commercial spines: Biscuit Belly at The Avenue, J. Alexander's on Market Place Boulevard. Two locally rooted operators are betting on the north side or the neighborhood middle: Bicicletta in Kedron Village, and a local buyer stepping in at Grazing Here.

That is the shift worth tracking. For years the standard recommendation for a nice dinner in Peachtree City sent you to The Avenue, to ENZO in Fayetteville, or out of town entirely. Kedron Village was a grocery-anchored stop, not a dining destination. A chef-owned Italian restaurant with a bocce court and a 72-hour dough program changes that reference point. The Panera space sitting dark for five months, then reopening as an independent restaurant with a hand-built patio, is not a small signal about what operators think this side of town can support.

Perhaps the biggest question local diners have asked since Bicicletta was announced is whether it will simply be another version of ENZO. The answer is no. And that's intentional. The same logic applies to the summer as a whole. The temptation is to read it as "more restaurants opened." What actually opened matters more than how many.

A practical read for the next few weekends: brunch at Biscuit Belly if you are already at The Avenue, dinner at Bicicletta if you want the new-restaurant energy and a patio, a check-in visit to Grazing Here to meet the new team, and a wait-and-see on J. Alexander's until the doors are actually open and the reviews from the first month settle.

When the Restaurant Scene Shifts, So Does the Neighborhood

Restaurant openings are a lagging indicator of where operators think a community is heading. Four separate teams put capital into Peachtree City this year, and half of them chose the north side. That is a data point for anyone thinking about the neighborhood, whether you have lived here for twenty years or you are still figuring out which side of town suits you.

If you want to talk through what changes like these mean for a specific street or subdivision you have your eye on, or you are curious how the north-side momentum is showing up in the market beyond the menu, Angela Yoder is happy to sit down and walk through it. Schedule a Consultation whenever the timing is right.