Chefs Parnass Savang and Rod Lassiter, owners of Summerhill Thai restaurant Talat Market, plan to open Thai bar Some Luck early next summer in Poncey-Highland.
Taking over the Highland Ballroom Lounge space beneath the Highland Inn, now Otto’s Apartment Hotel, Some Luck will serve a decidedly Thai-focused menu featuring bar snacks, noodle soups, wings, and late-night food inspired by dishes found at street stalls throughout Thailand.
Savang and Lassiter wanted to tie Atlanta, Georgia, and Thailand together at the new bar, just as they did with their Summerhill restaurant.
For Talat Market, this intentionality includes creating Thai dishes using Georgia-grown produce and local ingredients and opening inside a space once home to a Korean grocery in the neighborhood. Lassiter often frequented the Summerhill store with a friend when he first moved to Atlanta. Years later, when the space became available for lease, he convinced Savang that’s where they should open Talat Market.
Some Luck plays off the name of boxer Somluck Kamsing, who won Thailand’s first-ever gold medal in the 1996 Olympics held in Atlanta. Like the Talat Market space, the Highland Ballroom Lounge also carries special memories for Lassiter.
“I’m very sentimental and our landlord knows that. He helped us with Talat Market,” said Lassiter. “Before moving to Atlanta, I visited my cousins here and would stay at the Highland Inn and go to the bar there.”
“This landlord and his group do a great job with finding cool buildings and fixing them up, finding the right tenants, and trying to do right by the neighborhood,” he added. “They had the opportunity to buy the Highland Inn and Highland Row, and I let him know if that space became available, call me.”
A little over a year later, the call came in, and they were under contract to open Some Luck in the iconic Highland Ballroom Lounge.
At Some Luck, Savang and Lassiter will lean hard into Thai flavors and street foods, including a couple of large, sharable dishes and spicy soups with more acidic flavor profiles like those found in northeast Thailand. The bar will open for lunch and dinner, with food available for delivery via Uber Eats and DoorDash.
After 10 p.m., Some Luck will begin serving a late-night menu aimed at night owls and restaurant industry workers looking for a post-shift meal.
Expect quick-fired, stirred cocktails mixed with Thai ingredients and base spirits like rum, pitchers of ice-cold Singha beer, and local beers on draft.
“It’s going to have dive bar vibes, especially late at night, and we’re just not going to hold back with the Thai flavors here,” Savang said. “We want flavors and spice to kind of punch you in the face. We want this place to be packed and get people fed quickly.”
Lassiter and Savang are still playing with the design for Some Luck, but want to leave elements of the Highland Ballroom intact, including checkerboard flooring throughout the dining room and bar, hexagon flooring in the bathroom, and several vintage light fixtures. The space will feature lush greens from tropical plants and bright pops of color from pink and yellow neon, similar to the color scheme in the Talat Market logo.
The main bar will seat up to 25 people, with additional seating at booths in the lounge and at a bar once part of a private events space at Highland Ballroom.
“We’re going to paint some walls and clean it up a bit, make it a bit more lively, but without changing too much of what made the Highland Ballroom cool,” said Lassiter. “We kind of want it to look like we just came in, dusted it off, and opened the doors.”
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It’s been a momentous 12 months for the chefs and Talat Market.
Savang and Lassiter were the lone Atlanta and Georgia representatives at the James Beard Awards this year. They were nominated for Best Chef: Southeast. The award went to Paul Smith of 1010 Bridge in Charleston, West Virginia.
Michelin recognized Talat Market in the 2023 and 2024 dining guides to Atlanta, listing it as a recommended restaurant.
While the Michelin recognition gave a little boost to Talat Market’s profile, Lassiter said Some Luck was already in the works before they received the nod in the prestigious dining guide.
“It’s great to be recognized by Michelin, and it means a lot to us, but it wasn’t us saying ‘let’s strike while the iron’s hot’ in opening a new place because of it,” said Lassiter. “I had stuck my foot in the door at Highland Ballroom long before that to put a bug in the ear that we were interested in that space for something in the future.”
Earlier this fall, after 28 years in business, Savang’s family sold their Gwinnett County restaurant Danthai to new owners. The restaurant served as inspiration for Talat Market. Danthai is where Savang grew up, worked as a teenager, and learned all about the restaurant industry.
His parents eventually retired from the restaurant, handing the running of Danthai over to other family members. Savang’s mother now works alongside him at Talat Market. The sale closes a chapter for the family, but for Savang and Lassiter, Danthai lives on in some dishes and decor at Talat Market — and maybe soon at Some Luck.
“It’s just mind-boggling how much we owe to Danthai and to my parents, who helped us open Talat Market. So, never say never. Danthai is woven into the fabric of what we do. Without Danthai, there would be no Talat Market.”
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Some Luck will join wine bar Madeira Park when it opens at Otto’s Apartment Hotel next year. Chef Steven Satterfield and his Miller Union co-owner, Neal McCarthy, teamed up with Dive Wine pop-up founder Tim Willard in Madeira Park, which should open this winter in the former cafe space once part of the Highland Inn.
When Madeira Park and Some Luck open in 2025, the bars will be in great company along this stretch of North Highland Avenue.
The newly renovated Highland Row and Highland Inn buildings include bakeshop Colette Bread, owned by Sarah Dodge, nonalcoholic bottle shop The Zero Co., and a second location of Big Softie ice cream, owned by Sarah O’Brien of Little Tart Bakeshop. The block is also home to Sweet Auburn BBQ, Peruvian restaurant Tio Lucho’s, seafood market and cafe Fishmonger, Soul Vegetarian No. 2, and East Pole Coffee Co.
Some Luck will open by early summer 2025 at 644 North Highland Avenue, Poncey-Highland.