Dunwoody, Georgia has a brand new community tradition launching this spring, and it runs five events strong from May through October. Dunwoody Homeowners Association President Tim Brown joined me on What’s Up Dunwoody to walk through everything the DHA has built – the new concept, the new venues, and why Dine Around Dunwoody is worth putting on your calendar right now.
In This Episode
- Tim Brown, President of the Dunwoody Homeowners Association, explains how Dine Around Dunwoody replaces Food Truck Thursdays with a rotating 5-event series across Dunwoody parks and venues in 2026
- The schedule runs May through October with stops at Brook Run Park, Spruill Center for the Arts, and High Street amphitheater
- Moondog Growlers returns as the adult beverage partner – Tim says it was the most-requested community comeback of the year
- The DHA rebuilt its brand with a new logo, a new website built by Kapp Koncepts, the slogan “Neighbors Connecting Neighbors,” and Julia Frament leading the social media push
- All five events are free to attend, family-friendly, and designed to bring Dunwoody residents to parks and venues they may not have visited before
Why Was Food Truck Thursdays Ready for a Refresh?
Food Truck Thursdays had a 14 to 15-year run in Dunwoody. That is a genuinely impressive stretch for any community event, and the DHA deserves real credit for building something that lasted that long.
But Tim Brown was honest about what changed over time. The food truck market across metro Atlanta got crowded. What once felt fresh started to feel familiar in a way that worked against it. Attendance shifted. The weekly format had already moved to monthly a few years earlier. The DHA saw those signals and made a deliberate choice: shake it up rather than let it wind down on its own.
That takes real leadership. Changing something people love means earning their trust all over again. But the alternative – running the same event past the point where it’s serving the community – isn’t loyalty to a tradition. It’s inertia.
Tim described it as putting “a little twist” on Food Truck Thursdays. That framing matters. This is not a rejection of what the event was. The food trucks are still there. The Thursday evening format is still there. The community gathering energy is still there. What’s new is the ambition – to reach more residents, visit more venues, and cover more of Dunwoody’s geography.
Part of what drove the change was geography itself. Food Truck Thursdays drew heavily from Dunwoody North, where both Tim and I happen to live. The residents closer to the Perimeter, in apartments along High Street, near Spruill Center – they weren’t making the trip out to Brook Run Park every month. Dine Around Dunwoody is the DHA’s answer to that problem.
If you’ve been living in Dunwoody long enough to remember Food Truck Thursdays at its best, Dine Around Dunwoody will feel familiar and fresh at the same time. The tradition is intact. The execution has more range.
The community volunteers who built Food Truck Thursdays over all those years built something worth preserving. Dine Around Dunwoody is how that work keeps going.
What Is Dine Around Dunwoody?
The name says it all. “Dine Around” is the whole concept.
Five events, May through October, each at a different location across the city. The format stays consistent – food trucks, live music or DJs depending on the venue, family-friendly, free to attend. What rotates is the setting. The goal is to reach residents who weren’t making the trip to Brook Run, and to give Dunwoody residents a reason to visit parks and courtyards they may have driven past for years without stopping.
Tim brought up something that stuck with me. A lot of long-time Dunwoody residents have never seen the courtyard at Spruill Center for the Arts. Others haven’t been to the amphitheater at High Street. These are genuinely good places. They just don’t come with a built-in reason to visit. Dine Around Dunwoody is that reason.
Bring a blanket. Bring the kids. Plan to stay the evening. The Chick-fil-A cow will be making appearances. Moondog Growlers has the adult beverages covered. And the food truck lineup has always been the heart of these events – that part isn’t going anywhere.
Tim asked for two and a half hours on a Thursday night. For a free outdoor event with live music and food trucks, that’s an easy yes.
The official tagline for the series is Community, Food, Music. Three words that cover it well.
For anyone moving to Dunwoody or still getting their footing here, Dine Around Dunwoody is one of the better ways to start meeting neighbors. Low-pressure outdoor setting, community crowd, good food. You end up talking to people you didn’t expect to talk to. That’s how neighborhoods actually get built.
Where Are the 2026 Events?
The full 2026 season covers five dates across four locations.
May 21, 5:30 to 9 PM – Brook Run Park. The kickoff event. G Clef and the Playlist is performing live, and a City Parks and Recreation event is happening the same day at Brook Run. Starting here makes sense. Brook Run is familiar ground for most Dunwoody residents, and beginning on familiar turf helps build trust for the venues that follow.
June 18 – Spruill Center for the Arts courtyard. Tim called this a hidden gem. He is right. Spruill runs quality arts programming year-round, but many Dunwoody residents have never seen the courtyard specifically. A DHA event there introduces two community institutions to each other’s audiences at the same time. That kind of crossover is worth showing up for.
August 20 – High Street amphitheater. The most interesting venue on the list. High Street is still establishing itself as a destination, and it draws a different demographic than Dunwoody North – apartment residents, younger professionals, people who don’t regularly come out to Brook Run. Tim said it plainly: this is a chance to take Dunwoody to High Street. Velvet Taco is steps away if you want to keep the evening going after the event wraps.
September – TBD. Date and location were not confirmed at the time we recorded.
October 29 – Brook Run Park, co-presented with Parks and Recreation Trunk-or-Treat. Two Dunwoody community staples on the same night. This one is going to draw a serious crowd.
Food truck vendors interested in participating can register at dunwoodyga.org/dine-around-dunwoody/. If your food truck business is looking for strong Dunwoody exposure across a summer season, this is a straightforward opportunity.
Why Is Moondog Growlers Coming Back?
Of everything Tim announced in this episode, the Moondog Growlers news landed with the most force.
Felicia Burda and the Moondog Growlers team are returning as the official adult beverage partner for Dine Around Dunwoody. Tim said the DHA went back to the community to figure out what the new series should look like – and Moondog Growlers came up more than anything else.
That kind of response doesn’t happen by accident. It means the Moondog Growlers team made a real impression at past events. People noticed when they were there, and they noticed when that partnership ended. You don’t get community feedback that specific unless you earned it.
Having them back also says something about how the DHA thinks about vendor relationships. This is not about finding the lowest-cost option for a beverage tent. It’s about bringing back businesses that are part of the Dunwoody fabric – businesses with a real connection to this community, not just a contract.
Moondog Growlers has been a fixture at Dunwoody events for years, from Light Up Dunwoody to others across the calendar. Dine Around Dunwoody is a natural home for them. Once people hear they’re back, Tim said, that alone is going to be a draw. I believe it.
How Has the DHA Changed?
Dine Around Dunwoody is the most visible part of a broader DHA evolution that has been building for over a year.
Tim Brown has led a full rebrand of the organization. New logo. New visual identity across every DHA event, not just the flagship ones. A new website built by Kapp Koncepts. A slogan that finally captures what the DHA actually does: “Neighbors Connecting Neighbors.”
The social media piece has been one of the bigger shifts. Julia Frament runs the DHA’s social channels and marketing, and Tim was direct about it – she has done a killer job. He described himself as not a creative person and gave her full credit for the DHA’s new look and presence online. That honesty is part of what makes Tim an effective leader. He knows what he’s good at, and he builds a team around the rest.
Leah and Jimmy Economos of EEP Events handle the DHA’s sponsorship relationships. Leah brings in the local business partnerships that fund events like Dine Around Dunwoody. Tim said she recovered the entire website investment through new sponsorships and then some. The DHA runs entirely on memberships and community sponsorships – no hotel and motel tax, no city funding of any kind.
David Ziskind helped the DHA set up live streaming for its meetings – another small piece of the infrastructure that makes the organization more accessible and more visible.
Tim framed this as the DHA entering its “marketing phase.” The brand infrastructure is in place. The systems are cleaner. The team is stronger. Now the work is getting in front of more Dunwoody residents and showing them what the DHA is actually doing.
DHA membership is $40 a year for Basic – which includes a membership card, window sticker, and discounts at local merchants including Moondog Growlers, Joey D’s, Vino Venue, The Winestore, Summit Coffee, and others. Gold membership is $100 a year. Everything in Basic, plus a fridge magnet, yard sign, shopping bag, and invitations to quarterly members-only social events at spots like Chupitos, Joey D’s, and The Winestore.
If you’re living in Dunwoody and haven’t joined yet, Dine Around Dunwoody is a good excuse to fix that. If you’re thinking about moving to Dunwoody and want to understand what community life here actually feels like, the DHA is the right place to start. This is what showing up for your neighbors looks like – consistently, year after year, whether the event draws a crowd or not.
Connect with Tim and the DHA
Everything lives at dunwoodyga.org.
Dine Around Dunwoody event details and food truck vendor registration: dunwoodyga.org/dine-around-dunwoody/
Membership information for both Basic and Gold levels: dunwoodyga.org/membership-info/
Sponsorship inquiries go through the site, and Leah Economos handles the follow-up from there.
The kickoff is May 21 at Brook Run Park from 5:30 to 9 PM. Bring the family, bring a blanket, and go see what the DHA has been building. Tim Brown and his team have earned the crowd.
This episode was sponsored by Village Orthodontics – Bret Freedman and his team in Dunwoody have been longtime supporters of What’s Up Dunwoody, and I appreciate them showing up every week.
What Is What’s Up Dunwoody?
What’s Up Dunwoody is a local media platform created by REALTOR® Matt Weber, focused on living in Dunwoody, moving to Dunwoody, and staying connected to the community. It began as a podcast and has grown into social media content, local guides, and two of the largest Dunwoody-focused Facebook groups where residents share recommendations and stay in the loop. Matt has expanded slightly outside of Dunwoody and now covers the entire top end of the Perimeter through his Top End ATL channels.
Matt is a Dunwoody REALTOR® who helps people navigate buying, selling, and moving in the area. Stay in the loop with local updates, listings, and insights by signing up here: whatsupdunwoody.com/email