Podcast 338 – Varuni Napoli, Rosetta Bakery, and Discover Dunwoody at High Street – Mark Galvin

Podcast 338 – Varuni Napoli, Rosetta Bakery, and Discover Dunwoody at High Street – Mark Galvin

Mark Galvin, Chief Marketing and Operating Officer at Discover Dunwoody, came back on the podcast for our monthly run through everything new in Dunwoody, Georgia.

In This Episode

• Varuni Napoli and Rosetta Bakery both opened at High Street in Dunwoody, Georgia
• Discover Dunwoody announced it is relocating its offices to High Street by the end of 2026
• Perimeter Mall is moving its food court toward Macy’s with new entrances on both sides of the building
• A 12-foot Busy Bee sculpture by artist Huelani Mei is unveiled at Windwood Hollow Park on September 10
• Dunwoody Preservation Trust moved its Farm to Table fundraiser to Thursday, October 1 at Donaldson Bannister Farm

What Does Discover Dunwoody Actually Do?

Discover Dunwoody is the official destination marketing organization for the city. Their job is making sure people inside and outside our region know what Dunwoody has to offer. Restaurants, shopping, parks, hotels, events. All of it.

“We just want people to come into Dunwoody and spend money,” Mark said. I appreciate a mission statement you can fit on a napkin.

Here’s the part most people don’t know. Dunwoody charges an 8% hotel tax. Discover Dunwoody receives 3.5 points of that. The rest goes to the city, some earmarked for travel and tourism and some into the general fund. So every hotel room booked here turns into marketing that brings the next visitor in. It’s a loop, and it’s funded by people who don’t live here.

That’s why I love having Mark on. He knows this city as well as anybody I talk to. There aren’t many people I can go this deep on Dunwoody with before somebody’s eyes glaze over.

What Just Opened at High Street Dunwoody?

High Street Dunwoody took up a big chunk of our conversation, and for good reason.

Varuni Napoli is open. It’s the pizza place, and yes, I went. I ordered it to go, which was my mistake. They actually warned me on the phone that it runs on the soft side and asked if I wanted it crisped up. I said yes and I still should have eaten it there. Learn from me. Sit down for this one. The pizza was still amazing when we got it home, but that kind of pizza is made to be eaten fresh out the oven.

Rosetta Bakery opened right next door. Mark has been talking about this place opening on the podcast for about a year. Beautiful space, great food, great coffee.

TriNet also held its grand opening at High Street. If you’ve never heard of a PEO, it stands for professional employer organization. They handle back of house HR work for small and medium businesses. Payroll, benefits, all the stuff nobody starts a company because they love. They’re bringing a lot of new people to Dunwoody, which means a lot of new lunch traffic for everybody else on that block.

Discover Dunwoody Is Moving to High Street

This part is not from the episode. It landed the morning I was putting this post together, about a week after Mark and I recorded.

I received a press release that Discover Dunwoody announced it has signed a lease and is relocating its offices to High Street. The move should be finished by the end of 2026.

I think this is a great look for us. The people whose whole job is selling this city are about to sit right in the middle of the thing they’re selling. Ray Ezelle, CEO and President of Discover Dunwoody, called it a front row seat to the city’s growth. Ann Hanlon, who chairs their board and runs the Perimeter Community Improvement District, called it a vote of confidence in the district.

The new office also includes a podcast studio that community partners and local businesses will be able to use. As a guy who records a lot of podcasts in this town, I’m paying close attention to that one.

Where Is the Perimeter Mall Food Court Moving?

Nothing on my website gets searched harder than the Perimeter Mall food court. I put out one video about it years ago and people have never stopped asking.

So here’s what Mark told me. The food court is moving off the center of the first floor and down toward the Macy’s wing. Expect a more attractive space, and a much more hospitable one than what’s there now.

Access is the best part. There will be entrances from outside the mall on both sides. You’ll be able to come in from the Ashford Dunwoody side, walk a short hallway, and be in the food court. You’ll also be able to come in from the back where the big parking deck is. Grab food, get out, never touch the mall itself.

Nick Nicolosi is the man behind these changes. He’s the general manager at Perimeter Mall and he sits on the Discover Dunwoody board. Mark asked him directly to loop them in on anything food court related, because everybody wants to know. Nick promised them a first look, so watch the Discover Dunwoody feeds.

There is no firm opening date. They would love to have it open for Christmas. Mark called that aggressive, and I’d trust him on that. I hope he’s wrong.

What Is the Dunwoody Village Merchant Alliance?

Beyond Juicery + Eatery opened at The Shops of Dunwoody, which is the shopping center where Breadwinner Cafe and Dunwoody Tavern are. Along with everyone’s favorite orthodontist Village Orthodontics.

The bigger story over there isn’t a single opening. It’s the Dunwoody Village Merchant Alliance.

For years, people have told me they’d love to see The Village bulldozed and redesigned from scratch. That’s never happening. Different owners hold different shopping centers, and getting them all to agree on a teardown is a fantasy. So the merchants did something better. They started working together anyway.

Lauren Sok, who owns and operates Functionize Health & Physical Therapy, is the unofficial chair. Rosemary Watts, who leads Create Dunwoody, does the organizing. Mark’s line was that Rosemary is the pieces of the engine and Lauren is the cheerleader, which I think sounds about right.

Mark had an intern sit in on one of their meetings. She came out saying it was the coolest thing. A room full of business owners, looking for ways to build things together that help everybody. When neighboring businesses are comfortable sending customers back and forth, that solves problems no redevelopment plan ever could.

They put on Sips Around the Village, and their fall calendar is stacked. Scarecrow Showdown in October. Sounds of Shops of Dunwoody on October 24. A Village trick or treat night on October 30. The Funwoody Beer Run in November, and the Village Holiday Celebration and Lantern Parade on November 22.

What’s New at Park Place in Dunwoody?

Van Leeuwen Ice Cream opened at Park Place, which is the center with Café Intermezzo, Eclipse di Luna, and McKendrick’s Steak House.

Mark’s position is that Dunwoody needs roughly 30 ice cream shops and we’re working our way there. I got influencer passes for the night before Van Leeuwen opened and took the kids. Multiple people told me to get whatever I wanted, and it did not have to be ice cream. So I got a big ice cream AND a root beer float. My wife and kids thought that was hilarious. Only me. Both were great, and the ice cream sandwich there is worth the trip on its own.

I hadn’t been to Park Place since the renovation, which is embarrassing for the Dunwoody guy. There used to be a gazebo in the middle. Now there’s some real green space, a pyramid structure kids can climb up and crawl through, and they even screen movies out there in nice weather. There’s an outdoor ping pong table!

Mark says two or three more tenants are close to being announced. Park Place is owned by EDENS. Their site already lists Simply South Pure Indian Vegetarian as coming soon.

Here’s what I see happening across Dunwoody, with all these great shopping centers including High Street, Ashford Lane, the Village, and many more. You used to say “let’s go to Café Intermezzo.” Now you say “let’s go to Park Place” and figure out dinner when you get there. Ashford Lane turned a road into green space and it blew up for them, and everybody else took notes. We have so many destinations in the city.

What Dunwoody Events Are Coming This Fall?

The Discover Dunwoody events page is filling up, and this is the stretch where everything starts happening for Fall.

A 12-foot Busy Bee sculpture by artist Huelani Mei is unveiled at Windwood Hollow Park on September 10. That park is close to my house and I spent a lot of afternoons there with my son after preschool back when he was little. He’s in high school now, and I miss those times at the park.

The Butterfly Experience runs September 5 and 6 at the Dunwoody Nature Center. Tickets are $18 general admission, $15 for members, and free for kids 3 and under. If you’ve never been, it’s a lot of fun. I did a couple of podcasts with them in the past. One of things I remember from those conversations is that the butterflies arrive frozen. They ship them cold, thaw them out on site, and then the whole tent comes alive. I did not believe it the first time I heard it either.

Dunwoody Preservation Trust moved its Farm to Table fundraiser to a Thursday this year, October 1, out at Donaldson Bannister Farm. Mark and his wife go every year. The servers are Dunwoody High School students and the food is excellent. Mark says you always end up seated next to somebody you’ve heard about for years but never actually met.

Discover Dunwoody is also acting as Atlanta’s Holiday Headquarters again this year at holidayheadquarters.com. If your organization is hosting anything over the holidays, go to their site and search “submit an event.” They will put it on the calendar. Honestly, they’re amazing at tracking these events Discover Dunwoody. Go to whatsupdunwoody.com/events to see all of them.

What Else Is Being Built in Dunwoody?

We ran short on time, so here’s the rapid fire.

Saints + Council is building an 8,000 square foot restaurant on one of the outparcels at the front of Perimeter Mall. I interviewed them recently. Their founder used to be CEO of Café Intermezzo, and when I mentioned Saints + Council to my wife she lit up. I don’t know fancy dining, but she does. This is a restaurant that Dunwoody should be excited about.

Campus 244 is adding apartments. That’s the building you see off I-285, the one with the Insight Global sign, and it used to be the Gold Kist headquarters. It looked like concrete shipped in from somewhere gray. They’ve since wrapped it in natural wood and it’s genuinely nice now. When folks drive by the Ashford-Dunwoody exit on 285, it’s a great representation of Dunwoody and the Perimeter area.

Living Spaces is coming in near Ravinia soon. High Street is rolling out phase two and phase three, and phase three includes a hotel.

All of this happens because of where we sit. Dunwoody sits near the crossroads of GA-400 and I-285. You can get here from I-85 and I-75 without much trouble, or take MARTA straight in from downtown. We are near everything! That’s why the developers keep showing up.

I asked Mark whether all this growth makes his job easier. He said yes and no. “How do you put the white hot spotlight on one thing when there’s a lot of things going on?” That’s a good problem for a city to have. It’s also exactly why we do this every month. One conversation can’t cover Dunwoody anymore, so we just keep showing up and taking it a month at a time.

If you’re thinking about moving to Dunwoody, this is the stuff that matters more than square footage. Living in Dunwoody in 2027 is going to look different than it did five years ago, and mostly in good ways.

Connect with Discover Dunwoody

Everything Mark mentioned lives at DiscoverDunwoody.com, and you can follow them at @DiscoverDunwoody on social. For holiday events, go to holidayheadquarters.com. To get your own event on their calendar, visit their website and search “submit an event.”

You can also find local events any time at whatsupdunwoody.com/events.

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

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