Drive Jonesboro Road on any given evening and the corridor still reads the way it has for years: retail bays built for turnover, drive-thru lanes stacked three and four deep, the kind of stretch you pass through on your way somewhere else. Nothing about the exterior tells you that a four-time James Beard semifinalist is running a smoker inside one of those bays, or that another serious barbecue operation has quietly opened elsewhere in the city. The signage hasn't caught up to what's actually happening in the kitchens.
That gap between what the corridor looks like and what's inside it is the real story for anyone who already lives in McDonough. You don't need a market report to know something changed. You need to know which door to walk through.
Que-riosity Puts a James Beard Name on Jonesboro Road
In March 2026, chef Todd Richards opened Que-riosity at 1931 Jonesboro Road. Richards isn't a first-time operator testing a concept. He's a self-taught chef and four-time James Beard semifinalist who currently serves as executive chef at Waldorf Astoria Atlanta Buckhead, and his resume usually points toward Buckhead or the BeltLine, not a retail strip in Henry County.
The restaurant is a Southern-inspired barbecue room built with fine-dining intent, honoring the techniques of Black pitmasters while running on locally sourced ingredients. Richards described the philosophy simply: it's about giving barbecue tradition "the same care and attention you'd see in a fine-dining kitchen." The doors are open Thursday through Monday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., which matters if you're planning a Tuesday night out. This isn't a drop-in lunch counter. It runs on a schedule built for a slower, evening meal.
Smoke Friendly BBQ Opens a Second Serious Pit
Smoke Friendly BBQ, a family-run barbecue operation out of Covington, has opened a second location in McDonough at 59 Macon Street, building on the success of its original restaurant. That gives the city two ambitious, from-scratch barbecue programs at the same time, run by two different operators who weren't chasing each other's address.
That detail is easy to skim past, but it's worth sitting with. Barbecue is a slow, capital-heavy bet. It requires real equipment, real pit time, and a menu that doesn't turn tables the way a drive-thru does. When two operators commit to that model in the same city without coordinating, that's not a coincidence you'd expect in a town still known mostly for chain intersections. It's two independent reads on the same market, arriving at the same conclusion.
Leo's Cafe Didn't Wait to See How It Plays Out
The corridor's confidence isn't limited to newcomers. Leo's Cafe, a family-owned breakfast and brunch spot that had spent nearly seven years on Racetrack Road, relocated in 2025 to a larger space at 148 John Frank Ward Boulevard, east of the Square, in a building formerly occupied by Baby Jane's Home Cooking. The move nearly doubled seating capacity, from 82 seats to more than 170, and the space now runs a dinner menu several nights a week in addition to its longtime breakfast and lunch service.
That's a local operator who already had a working business choosing to bet bigger rather than stay put. If you've been a regular at the Racetrack Road location, the shorter wait for a table and the added dinner hours are the practical upside. If you haven't tried it, the bigger dining room and expanded menu are worth a first visit.
Super Chix Is Coming. Nobody Will Say Exactly When
Not every arrival is settled yet. Super Chix, the Texas-based fast-casual chain known for hand-cut fries and frozen custard, signed a lease in February 2026 for a 2,500-square-foot space at 982 Jonesboro Road, inside the planned Jonesboro Junction retail center. The chain already operates in Dunwoody, Peachtree City, Marietta, Kennesaw, and Newnan, and franchise operators tend to expand into suburbs that are already performing well for other concepts nearby.
As of the most recent reporting on the project, no opening date had been made public. If you've been watching for a sign in that window, the honest answer is: not yet, but the lease is real and the space is designated. It's the kind of detail worth checking back on rather than assuming has already happened.
What's Actually Open Right Now
If you're deciding where to go this week, here's the practical rundown as things stand:
- Que-riosity, 1931 Jonesboro Road: open, Thursday through Monday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
- Smoke Friendly BBQ, 59 Macon Street: open.
- Leo's Cafe, 148 John Frank Ward Boulevard: open, with breakfast and lunch daily and dinner service added on select nights.
- Super Chix, 982 Jonesboro Road (Jonesboro Junction): leased, not yet open.
That list will keep shifting through the fall, which is worth remembering before you plan a night around a restaurant that technically hasn't opened its doors.
The Square Hasn't Gone Quiet
None of this displaces what the Square already does well. Downtown still anchors the city's other seasonal rhythms: the Main Street Market that runs on the Square, and the annual Scarecrow Contest, which typically opens registration in late August and caps entries each year, with judging and voting running into the Fall Festival at the end of October. If you're weighing a barbecue dinner against a Saturday stroll through downtown, this fall you genuinely don't have to choose only one side of town to get both.
What's changed is the assumption that Jonesboro Road is a pass-through. It isn't anymore, and the barbecue room now open at 1931 Jonesboro Road is the reason. The exterior hasn't caught up. The food already has.
McDonough keeps adding reasons to stick around on a Friday night, and for a lot of residents, that's exactly the kind of local knowledge that eventually turns into a longer-term decision about where to put down roots. When that day comes, Vision To Realty and broker Tiffany Biggins know this corridor, this Square, and the rest of southeast Atlanta well enough to help you find a home that fits the life you're already building here. Start your home search with Tiffany whenever you're ready.
