The Newest Marietta Square Keeps Later Hours Than Its Festivals
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
On a recent weeknight at 46 Polk Street, a block off the Square, EMTs on a break from runs to Kennestone Hospital shared a 24-seat room with students from Kennesaw State and Chattahoochee Tech. A customer says he comes in about once a week. The cafe is Terminus 72. It opens at 9 p.m. and closes at 5 a.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Its hours are unusual, but they match a pattern. Fin & Feathers on Atlanta Street, Antika on Powder Springs Street and Terminus 72 are the three newest tables closest to the Square, and none of them opens before 4 p.m. Meanwhile, every big October event on the city's calendar wraps up by 5 p.m. This month you can see both sides of that in a single Saturday.
The morning routine is the same as always. The Marietta Square Farmers Market runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon at 41 Mill Street. The Marietta Square Artisan Market runs on the same street until 1 p.m. Both calendars list every Saturday through November 28.
The two October festivals follow the same daytime pattern:
On October 10, the chalk artists share the morning with the farmers market until noon. From noon to 1 p.m., the artisan market overlaps with the chalk festival and the opening hour of the beer festival. By 5 p.m. all of it is over, and the restaurants that opened this year are just opening.
Fin & Feathers soft-opened at 16 Atlanta Street SE on Thursday, August 6. The space sits across from Johnnie MacCracken's Celtic Firehouse Pub. The menu is Southern, with fried catfish, honey bourbon salmon, shrimp and grits, and a brunch menu that includes chicken and waffles. The hours stand out more than the menu. It's closed Monday through Wednesday, open 5 p.m. to midnight Thursday and Sunday, and open until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Antika, the Mediterranean tapas and cocktail spot at 34 Powder Springs Street, was planning a mid-June opening as of late May, depending on its liquor license. A verified diner review dated September 26 confirms it was serving by then. Its listed hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
That gives Antika the earliest start of the three, and it still opens an hour before Chalktoberfest packs up.
Terminus 72 is the strongest example. Owner Ika Xiao came to the U.S. from Shanghai and opened the cafe in early July. She calls it an "experimental cafe" meant to share Chinese culture in Marietta. The name combines Atlanta's original name, Terminus, with July, the seventh month, which is also her birthday month.
Everything on the menu is non-alcoholic: iced lattes, Chinese oolong and Japanese sencha, all made by hand on a manual espresso machine, French press or pour-over. The food menu is split into "quickies" like curry ramen and "experimental" dishes like the Slam-Dump Shanghai, which is vegan dumplings in broth. There's no outdoor seating. You take a number, find a seat and order when you're ready. Rough Draft reported that some guests take 20 to 30 minutes before they get to the counter.
A Chattahoochee Tech student told Rough Draft she assumed the hours were a typo when she first saw them on TikTok. Xiao said the viral video sent crowds her way, and she was cautious about all the attention. That customer later explained why the hours appeal to him:
"All the night places, not just in Georgia, but all over the country have shut down. There's not a lot of places to be at night, so when I saw this, I thought, 'Yeah, we definitely need this.'"
Xiao told Rough Draft she hopes the space can host book clubs and art events.
At 45 W. Park Square, facing Glover Park, one address has changed hands twice in the past year. Chef Greg Lipman and his mother, Betty Bahl, opened Piastra there in 2015 and ran it as a full-service Italian restaurant for ten years. Piastra served its last dinner on December 31, 2025. In late January 2026 they reopened the space as Asher & Rose Modern Grocers, a specialty market, cafe and bar with a butcher counter, regional cheeses, prepared foods and some Piastra pizzas and pastas still on the menu.
On May 7, the company behind Asher & Rose filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The Marietta Daily Journal later reported the store was closing less than a year after its grand opening. On August 27, the bankruptcy judge approved a sale of the business assets and the lease. The building itself was not part of the sale. The buyer, Salem Makhlouf, is planning a French brasserie called Brasserie Genevieve. What Now Atlanta reported that the team appears to be connected to L on North. Marietta.com's September update puts the opening somewhere between late 2026 and early 2027.
Lipman's own account helps explain the Square's direction. When the bankruptcy was filed, he said the number of food and beverage businesses around the Square had grown from about 28 when Piastra opened in 2015 to about 43 in 2026. Marietta.com, using a wider walking-distance radius and leaving out fast-food chains, counts more than 60. With that many places competing for the same blocks, the newer arrivals are setting themselves apart by when they're open. Fin & Feathers stays open until 3 a.m. on weekends, and Terminus 72 is still serving at 4 a.m. on a Wednesday.
Daytime options are still growing a few blocks out. El Jalisco opened on August 25 inside Marietta Square Market at 68 North Marietta Parkway NW. The food hall's October calendar includes a Plant Sale and Artisan Market today, October 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Bach To Rock live music on October 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The evening events run later in the month: Pilates on the lawn October 20 at 7 p.m., Tile Tuesday mahjong October 27 from 6 to 8 p.m. and a Forno Vero Knob Creek tasting that same night at 6:30. Registration for the Fall Cornhole League closes October 6, and Monday play begins October 12.
October 31 falls on a Saturday this year, so the whole day can run on the Square. The farmers and artisan markets have that morning on their calendars. The Strand's late-October lineup runs over three nights: Tea and Arsenic: A Macabre Cabaret and Halloween on October 29, The Rocky Horror Picture Show on October 30 and Hocus Pocus on Halloween. The public calendar doesn't list showtimes, so check the Strand's ticket pages before you plan dinner around a screening. After the movie, Fin & Feathers is open until 3 a.m. and Terminus 72 until 5 a.m.
Theatre in the Square has its own October calendar. Ragtime The Musical plays today at 3 p.m., October 7 at noon, October 9 at 8 p.m. and October 11 at 3 p.m. For The Love Of Mocha is October 23 at 8 p.m., and LOLA: Here She Is! is October 24 at 7 p.m.
The first November dates are already set. The Marietta Square Art Walk, held the first Friday of each month, returns November 6 from 5 to 9 p.m. The same night, the Strand begins It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, which runs through November 22. The earliest target for Brasserie Genevieve at 45 W. Park Square is late 2026, so it could open in time to join the Square's evening hours this winter.
If the Square's later hours have you thinking about how a home within walking distance fits your routine, or how that walkability affects a home you already own nearby, Roxanne Sellers is happy to talk it over, block by block. Let's connect and schedule a consultation.
Roxanne’s clients enjoy her personal touches, and it is truly her joy to ultimately fulfill her client’s requests throughout the transaction and graciously serve them.With only her clients’ best interests in mind, she acts as a skilled advocate on their behalf.