High Street, Ashford Lane, or the Mall? How Perimeter's Fall Calendar Splits Three Ways

"Malls are back, right?" Mark Galvin of Discover Dunwoody said on the What's Up Dunwoody podcast in late September, pointing to a run of Wall Street Journal stories about mall revivals. On the same episode he shared a figure that backs him up. Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for the whole city of Dunwoody, and the mall is the reason.

Look at what's actually on the calendar for October 2026, though, and very little of it is happening indoors. The free evenings, the markets and the Halloween night are spread across two lawns about a mile apart. The Green at High Street is one. The Lawn at Ashford Lane is the other. Perimeter Mall's biggest changes are still in progress, with dates that run into the end of the year and well into 2027.

The mall's news runs on a later clock

The one finished change at Perimeter Mall is Aritzia. The store is on the second floor in the former Talbots space, near lululemon and Madewell, and the podcast describes it as the brand's second Atlanta-area store after Lenox Square. Galvin said Discover Dunwoody's post about the opening reached 5,000 people within hours.

Nearly everything else at the mall is announced but not open yet:

• The new food court. Plans reported in February put it outside Macy's, with the old court turned into concourse and retail space. As of late September, the mall hoped to open it by the end of 2026 but hadn't set a firm date.
• Saints+Council. Spur Hospitality's restaurant from Colony Square in Midtown is aiming to open late in the first half of 2027. Its size and exact spot in the mall haven't been announced.
• Three retailers listed as coming soon. The mall's own page names ALO, James Avery and Aéropostale Girls Shop, with no dates.

This month's mall programming is small and mostly happens during the day. Stretch & Sip is free and takes place at the Green Space by the main entrance on Saturday mornings, October 10 and 17. Yoga runs from 10 to 10:45 a.m., mocktails follow until 11, and brunch offers start at 11 at participating mall restaurants. You need to register. A free Selfie Studio runs daily in the Lower Level Nordstrom Court through October 21. We found no 2026 holiday or Santa listing on the mall's event page as of early October.

The Green at High Street has the weeknights

High Street opened two years ago on what used to be surface parking at Perimeter Center Parkway and Hammond Drive, a few minutes' walk from MARTA's Dunwoody station. Two openings in the past two months gave it a new reason to visit during the day.

Varuni Napoli opened its third metro Atlanta pizzeria there on August 5, in a mural-covered space of nearly 3,000 square feet. It has a takeout window, a private chef's room and a covered patio that looks out on The Green. Rosetta Bakery followed on Saturday, September 12, at 120 High St. The menu covers focaccia, pizza, sandwiches, pastries, coffee and the Bombolone, an Italian filled doughnut. Hoodline reported that the Dunwoody location has an open kitchen and a policy of keeping baked goods on the shelf for no more than 24 hours. The two join tenants that include Puttshack, Velvet Taco, Nando's PERi-PERi, The Hampton Social, Cuddlefish, Agave Bandido and Ben & Jerry's.

The events schedule is what makes High Street a weeknight spot. Tai Chi on The Green runs Mondays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., starting October 12 and continuing through October 26. Wellness Wednesdays offer an outdoor fitness class from 6 to 7 p.m. on October 7, 14, 21 and 28. The season's last Social Fridays is October 16, from 6 to 8 p.m., with a DJ, a live set from Jaala, games and pumpkin decorating. World of Music, a free candlelit concert on The Green, is Saturday, October 24, from 7 to 9 p.m.

Discover Dunwoody, the city's official tourism organization, has signed a lease for office space at High Street. The new office will include a podcast studio for its Dunwoody Dialogues program, and community partners and local businesses will be able to use it. On the podcast, Galvin called High Street Dunwoody's future Main Street. According to Rough Draft Atlanta, the developer, GID, said in August that phase two was on pace to break ground in the fourth quarter of 2026. That phase would add 300 apartments, 40,000 square feet of loft offices and 80,000 square feet of retail. For now, that's a forecast, not a confirmed start.

Ashford Lane has the family Saturday

When the podcast host asked where a visiting family with an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old should go, Galvin didn't hesitate. He said Ashford Lane, and High Street came in a close second. His reasons were green space for kids, plenty of parking, and food that works for every age at Culinary Dropout, Superica, Grana, Taco Mac and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. CAMP has a toy shop up front and a themed play space in back, currently The PAW Patrol Experience, and Game Show Battle Rooms is a good fit for groups.

The tenant list keeps getting longer. In September, Discover Dunwoody listed ClubCuts and Daily Pilates Perimeter among Ashford Lane's recent openings and named The Bunkr Golf Co. as a new entertainment option there. Ashford Lane's directory also lists Hawkers, Hobnob, Fleming's, Foxtail Coffee, Brownbag Seafood, Hyderabad House and Paris Baguette.

Ashford Lane's October events lean toward families and adult leagues:

1. Movies Under the Stars shows Scooby Doo on October 9, Halloween Town on October 16 and Hocus Pocus on October 23. The October 9 screening runs from 7 to 9 p.m.
2. Second Saturdays Fall Festival is free on October 10 from 4 to 7 p.m., with pumpkin painting, carnival games and fall performances.
3. Cornhole ATL's adult co-ed fall league starts Wednesday, October 14, at 6:30 p.m. and runs weekly through November 4.
4. ATL Bocce's adult co-ed fall league starts Thursday, October 15, at 6:30 p.m. and runs through November 5.

The same week, night by night

Put the two lawn calendars side by side and they barely overlap. Most nights of the week have something going on at one lawn or the other.

Friday, October 16, is the one night both lawns host something at once, with the last Social Fridays at High Street and Halloween Town at Ashford Lane.

October 10 is the day all three line up

Saturday, October 10, is the only date on which all three hubs have something scheduled, and the times run in order from morning to evening.

• Morning at the mall. Stretch & Sip starts at 10 a.m. at the Green Space by the main entrance.
• Midday at High Street. Gatherings on The Green is a local artisan market with live music. The listing shows two different time windows, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the header and noon to 3 p.m. in the market schedule, so check before you go.
• Late afternoon at Ashford Lane. The Second Saturdays Fall Festival runs from 4 to 7 p.m.

Three weeks later, High Street has Halloween to itself. Haunting at High Street is Saturday, October 31, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on The Green. It includes live music, free face painting, stilt walkers, a bounce house, a build-your-own tea bar from Back Porch Brew, and a trick-or-treat scavenger hunt through the shops.

When the lawns go quiet, the mall takes over again

High Street's event index doesn't list anything after October as of early October. Ashford Lane's leagues end in the first week of November, and its next big night is S'more the Merrier on Saturday, December 12, from 4 to 8 p.m. It's free and open to all ages, with fire pits and music on The Lawn.

That leaves late November to the mall. Thanksgiving is November 26 this year, so Dunwoody's busiest day lands on November 27. If the new food court opens on its hoped-for schedule, it would arrive in the same stretch.

A few nearby changes are worth knowing too. Van Leeuwen Ice Cream is now open in Dunwoody at Park Place, 4505 Ashford Dunwoody Road. About two miles north at the Shops of Dunwoody, Wasabi House closed on June 14 after 27 years. Beyond Juicery + Eatery has since opened at 5482 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, and Tenku Sushi, JETSET Pilates and SWEAT440 have signed leases.

The team at SET Real Estate Group keeps track of the Perimeter calendar the same way our neighbors do, one opening and one Saturday at a time. If you'd like to talk about how High Street's next phase or the mall's changes might affect your part of Perimeter, we're glad to have that conversation whenever you're ready.